Wednesday, Prince William County held its first two meetings for stakeholders to discuss the transformation of the county’s landfill into a community resource.
The Eco Park will consist of an interpretive science-technology-engineering-math (STEM) education center that will give the students the chance to get hands-on experience working with environment conservation and other related topics. The center will also support a research center for use by colleges and universities, visitor programs that include tours, and a variety of other resources that allow the community to interact with the environment. Plans to explore additional energy and recovery technologies are also part of the plan for the Eco Park.
The park will co-exist with the landfill, which will continue to be used as a gas energy plant which already generates 6.7 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 5,000 homes, according to officials.
The landfill has been a gas well since the late 1990s and has provided cost-free energy for surrounding structures such as the school bus garage and animal shelter.
“The lights in this building are probably being powered by the landfill,” said Tom Smith, Solid Waste Division Chief for the Department of Public Works. “And it doesn’t even smell,” he added.
In addition to the education center, there are plans to add six or seven gas wells, expected to last an additional 30 years at the least.
Some stakeholders present at the meeting were in full support, but some expressed concern over how the project would be funded. Smith said it is expected to cost $3 to $5 million.
“We are looking for partners to make this building a reality.” Smith said.
“If someone’s willing to give us a lot of money, we’ll name the building after them” he quipped.
Smith said one of the challenges of building the center was to do all of it without increasing any fees. He spoke passionately about his vision for the Eco Park.
“We’re trying to take a landfill, something that is usually negative, and turn it into a positive,” he said.
One stakeholder asked if the vision would continue if Smith retired. Jokingly, Smith assured him that he would die before retiring from the project.
A trail with education stations is expected to be started this summer, in addition to completing negotiations for a 5 megawatt solar energy project project to be built, which would power all the buildings on site. Depending on grants and private partnerships, finalization of the Eco Park building plan should begin in 2016.
The ground on which the landfill sits is large and will also include 383 acres of forested land that acts as a buffer zone surrounding the entire land, a compost facility, the solar panels from the solar energy project.
