I took another tour of the South Wake Landfill and highly recommend touring the facility. This time I got to see the seagulls that were migrating from the Great Lakes. They spend the day at the landfill and nights at Jordan Lake. Bald Eagles were traveling from Jordan Lake with them.
The landfill is an amazing place that keeps us healthy from diseases while doing what it can to protect the environment. A lot of thought and technology goes into it. The landfill has a liner system; the groundwater is monitored; the gas is being monitored by the current flare system and will soon be reused. Dominion Energy is building a site to use the methane gas released to provide renewable energy. Then there is a system for the leachate to remove the bad stuff and dehydrate it and filter the water.
Besides the landfill, it is also a convenience center, multi-material recycling facility and also a household hazardous waste facility. This landfill handles the waste for over 1.1 million people in Wake County.
The landfill is expected to be full by 2040 and there is no future facility set up yet. But a big problem is 65% of the material is the landfill could have been composted or recycled. So if we were doing more the landfill would not be filling so fast. read more