A Guide to the Revegetation and Environmental Restoration of Closed Landfills

Chapter 13: Conclusion

In the past 10 years, 122 landfills have closed in California. A closed landfill can be a valuable resource for future development and community use. Or, it can remain as an economic burden and an environmental deficit. This guide has reviewed a number of beneficial postclosure options: grassland, wooded wildlife preserve, official standard golf course, and office park.

For revegetation or restoration projects to work, thorough analysis of soils, local environment and ecosystems, surface or topographic design, and grading and compatible vegetation selections are essential.

Some important determinants for a successful project are listed below.

Proper Advanced Planning
When possible, advanced planning makes the final postclosure use an integral part of the landfill’s life span. Designing the landfill can take the final use into consideration along with the functional demands placed on the facility to comply with regulatory requirements. This can address final grades, gas collection systems, irrigation systems, ponds, surface drainage and runoff control systems, and leachate collection and treatment systems. This should result in cost savings overall in the closure phase. On existing landfill sites, planning will have to accommodate the restrictions imposed by the existing conditions of the site.

Material Resources
This can involve removal of stock plants on site to a temporary location for transplanting when the site is closed, seed collection, topsoil stockpiling, and locating sources of new additional replacement topsoil and plant stock. Planning of the postclosure use phase as part of the overall landfill life should conserve funding by integrating the physical needs of the landfill design and compliance requirements more closely with the physical needs of the future planned site use. Refuse can be more accurately graded to the required elevations and slopes. This can conserve final cover and topsoil (erosion layer) material, reducing expenses for the acquisition and transport of these materials. For existing landfills, intelligent design considerations should reduce costs.

Advanced Research
When exploring potential resources for the construction and eventual maintenance of the postclosure project, a preliminary study of the candidate resources and materials should be undertaken. Source water should be analyzed for harmful contaminants. The characteristics of the landfill (if it is an existing facility) need to be known or determined. Soils chemistry and potential for phytotoxic compounds in imported borrow material should be determined prior to importing, thus avoiding procuring useless material and resulting in wasted funding.

Appropriate Revegetation Planning
The conditions of the local environment in which the project will be developed need to be considered. Overall, annual weather patterns, precipitation, temperatures and winds, need to be addressed. These will dictate what the plant population will be. If the project is of a restorative nature, a thorough analysis of representative local plant species must be conducted. This will give the project manager the basis upon which to select and repopulate the restored site. Aesthetic sites, such as parks or some golf courses, will not require species analysis but they will still need selection of plants compatible with the local conditions where the project is located.

Extensive environmental restoration has been undertaken at three California landfills:

Crescent City Landfill
Del Norte County. This 170-acre site is located adjacent to, and surrounded on three sides by identified wetlands. Once a "burn dump", the site was certified closed in 1995. It is being restored with environmental restoration techniques. A man-made wetlands was created as part of the project.

Coyote Canyon Landfill
Orange County. This 300-acre site is located in canyon lands of the San Joaquin Hills near Newport Beach. The landfill impacts the habitat of the California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica). Extensive sage scrub habitat, which necessitated over 30-foot deep vegetative cover, was restored on the landfill site.

South Miramar Landfill
San Diego County. This 22-acre site is located in an area with identified vernal pools, as well as wetland, freshwater marsh, chamise chaparral, and ruderal (disturbed) vegetation.

These projects are described in this author's paper provided at a workshop at Granlibakken in Tahoe City, California, in August 1998 (available at the IWMB Library). A discussion of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' role in permitting for landfills was included. Speakers at the workshop were:

Crescent City Landfill
Mr. Art Reeve, Environmental Engineer
Mr. Tom Hughes, LEA, Del Norte County

Coyote Canyon
Mr. Quang Nguyen, LEA, Orange County
Ms. Lisa Woods, City of San Diego

South Miramar
Mr. Gino Yekta, Engineer, Co. of San Diego Dept. of Environmental Health
Ms. Lisa Woods, City of San Diego

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Appendix 1: Potential Sources for Funding of Restoration Projects in California

(Source: Yolo County Resources Conservation District)

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
2800 Cottage Way W-2610
Sacramento, CA 95825
Contact: Ms. Debra Schlafmann or Mr. Dan Strait
Telephone: (916) 414-6446

Challenge Cost/Share Program

Source: U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
3380 Americana Terrace
Boise, ID 83706
Contact: Ms. Shannon Cunnet
Non-Game Bird Program
Telephone: (202) 208-5007 or (202) 208-3568 (Secretary)
Internet: http://www.fws.gov

Conservation Reserve Program

Source: Farm Service Agency
Contact: Larry Plumb
1303 J Street, Suite 300
Sacramento, CA 95814
Telephone: (916) 498-5300

Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program

Source: Natural Resources Conservation Service
Contact: Your local District Conservationist for NRCS
U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service

Game Bird Heritage Program

Source: California Department of Fish and Game
1416 9th St, Room 1280
Sacramento,CA 95814
Contact: Ms. Karen Fothergill
Telephone: (916) 653-2245

Anadromous Fish Restoration Program

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
2233 Watt Avenue, Suite 375
Sacramento, CA 95825
Contact: Mr. John Castellano
Telephone: (916) 979-2085

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Appendix 2: Nurseries Providing California Native Plants

(Source: Yolo County Resources Conservation District)

California Native Grasses

Pacific Coast Seed
7074-D Commerce Circle
Pleasanton, CA 94588
Telephone: (510) 463-1188
Fax: (510) 463-1941

S & S Seeds
P.O. Box 1275
Carpinteria, CA 93014-2798
Telephone: (805) 684-0436
Fax: (805) 684-2798

Hedgerow Farms
21740 County Road 88
Winters, CA 95694
Telephone: (916) 662-4570
Fax: (916) 668-8369

Conservaseed
P.O. Box 455
Rio Vista, CA 94571
Telephone: (916) 775-1646

Larger Native Plants (Trees and Shrubs)

Los Angeles Moran Reforestation Center
P.O. Box 1590
Davis, CA 95617
Telephone: (916) 753-2441

Magalia Nursery
6640 Steiffer Rd.
Magalia, CA 95954
Telephone: (916) 873-0400

Cornflower Farms
P.O. Box 896
Elk Grove, CA 95759
Telephone: (916) 689-015
Fax: (916) 689-1968
Catalogue available

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Resources

For additional copies of this guide and more information on revegetation, plant species, and other details of irrigation technology and application, please refer to the addresses below:

Costello, L.R.; Jones, K.S.; WUCOLS, Water Use Classification of Landscape Species, 1994.

Marsha Prillwitz
Department of Water Resources
1020 Ninth Street
P.O.Box 942836
Sacramento, CA 94236-0001

Guide to Vegetative Covers for California Landfills, 1994.

Craig Thomas Duncan,
Bryan A Stirrat and Associates,
1360 Valley Vista Dr.
Diamond Bar, CA 91765

A Guide to the Revegetation and Environmental Restoration of Closed Landfills,1999.

Jacques Graber, Associate Engineering Geologist, Remediation, Closure and Technical Services Branch.
California Integrated Waste Management Board, Publications Section
1001 I Street
PO Box 4025
Sacramento, CA 95812-4025
Contact Publications Office at 1-800- CA-WASTE (within California) or:
(916) 341-6353  (outside California).

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Additional Resources

Yolo County Resources Conservation District
Bring Farm Edges Back to Life (Publication on farmland margin restoration)
(Serving the north Central Valley and foothills.)
221 W. Court St., Suite 1
Woodland, CA 95695
Telephone: (916)662-2037
http://www.yolorcd.org/

California Association of Resources Conservation Districts
Provides listing and information on all Conservation Districts in California.
801 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Telephone: (916)447-7237

California Native Grass Association (CNGA)
P.O. Box 566
Dixon, CA 85620
Telephone: (916) 678-6282

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Bibliography

Books

Cronquist, Arthur, Introductory Botany, Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 49 East 43^rd Street, New York, N.Y., 1971.

Munz Philip A. and David D. Keck, A California Flora and Supplement, University of California Press, 1959.

Duncan, Craig Thomas, "Guide to Vegetative Covers for California Landfills", Bryan A Stirrat, and Associates,1994.

Berger, John J. (Ed.), Environmental Restoration, A compilation of papers, Island Press Suite 300,1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009, 1990.

1. Coats, Robert; Williams, Philip, "Hydrologic Techniques for Coastal Wetland Restoration Illustrated by Two Studies."
2. Dixon, Robert M.,"Land Imprinting for Dryland Revegetation and Restoration."
3. Guinon, Marylee; Allen, David, "Restoration of Dune Habitat at Spanish Bay."
4. Harding, Michael V.; Betts, Christopher D., "Use of Erosion Control Blankets on Harsh Sites."
5. Harrington, John; Howel, Evelyn; Horowitz, Howard, "Restoration Reforestation. Pest Plants in Woodland Restorations."
6. James, Beverly B., "Wastewater Disposal in a Forest Evapotranspiration System."
7. Mahler, David; Walther, Judy, "Habitat Restoration on a Central Texas Office Building Site."
8. Pritchett, David A., "Creation and Monitoring of Vernal Pools at Santa Barbara, California."
9. Sotir, Robin B., "Introduction to Soil Bioengineering Restoration."
10. Shonman, David, "Resolving Coastal Restoration Conflicts: Environmental Protection Guarantees."
11. Weiss, Stuart B.; Murphy, Dennis D., "Thermal Micro-Environments and the Restoration of Rare Butterfly Habitat.".

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Conference Papers

"Landfill Golf Course Developments," A collection of papers from the National Golf Foundation (NGF) Conference at Industry Hills, City of Industry, CA, November 12-14, 1995.

• Boyd, Gordon M., "Landfill Reclamation: Helping to Develop Golf Courses on Old Landfills.", SSB Environmental, Inc.
• Haughey, Richard, "The Compatibility of Golf Courses and Landfills."
• Fife, Jerry, Cave Creek Municipal Golf Course, "Ugly Dumpsite Transformed into Recreational Mega-facility."
• Osmun, Mark H., "Spanish Bay Golf Course Developers as Environmental Heroes."
• Miller, Frank H.; Parkes, Marty; Plotner, Greg, "Golf and the Environment."
• Bier, James D., "Effects of Landfill Gas at the Industry Hills Recreation and Conference Center; Building a Golf Course on a Landfill."
• Williams, C. Frank, "Understanding Biogas Effects."
• Gross, Patrick J., "What Can You Do if Your Golf Course Has Gas?"

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Papers

Banuelos, G.S.; Cardon, G.; Mackey, B.; Ben-Asher, J.; Wu, L.; Beuselinck, P.; Akohoue, S.; Zambrzuski, S. "Plant and Environmental Interactions: Boron and Selenium Removal in Boron-Laden Soils by Four Sprinkler-Irrigated Plant Species."

Carlson, Claire, L., "Environmental Impacts of Coal Combustion Residues," Bowling Green State University, Environmental Quality, Apr.-Jun., 1993, Vol. 22, n2, p.227.

California Coastal Commission, "Procedural Guidance for the Review of Wetland Projects in California’s Coastal Zone," Chapter Two, An Overview of Mitigation Processes and Procedures, Feb 19, 1997.

Costello, L.R.; Jones, K.S,, "Water Use Classification of Landscape Species," 1994.

Gilman, Edward F.; Leone, Ida A.; Flower, Franklin B., "Critical Factors Controlling Vegetation Growth on Completed Sanitary Landfills," USEPA Report No.600/2-B1-164, Cook College, Rutgers University, Sept. 1981.

Ghodrati, M.; Sims, J.T.; Vasilas, B.L., "Evaluation of Fly Ash as a Soil Amendment for the Atlantic Coastal Plain", Water, Air, Soil Pollution, 1995, Vol. 81, n3-4, pp.349-361.

Harris-Pierce, R.L., "Effects on Runoff Water Quality in a Semiarid Grassland", Colorado State University, Environmental Quality, Jan.-Feb. 1995, Vol. 24, n1, p. 112.

Invirotreat Inc.; "BKK Landfill Corp., Special Report: Evaluation of Treatment Options for Removal of TDS, Boron and Other Minerals From the Combined Effluent Stream of LTP and Power Plant" (undated).

Landsburg Nova Corp., "The Use of Bottom Ash as a Physical Amendment to Sodic Spoil, Global Perspective Conference," Calgary, Canada, Aug. 27-31, 1989, Vol. 2, p. 505 (11).

Licht, Louis; Madison, Mark; Lanier, Alicia. "Poplar Tree Technology Provides Cost and Management Advantages for Landfills," Oct. 1996.

Parker, D.R.; Page, A.L.; Thomason, D.N., "Salinity and Boron Tolerances of Candidate Plants for the Removal of Selenium from Soils," Journal of Environmental Quality, V20:157-164, 1991.

Peak, Michael T.; Thielen, David L., "Landform Contour Grading", Sukut Construction, Inc., Geoengineers, Inc. (undated).

Perry and Associates Collaborative, "Class I Conceptual Landscape Plan, BKK Class I Landfill, West Covina, CA," June 17, 1996.

Sajwan, K.S., Ornes.W. H., Youngblood, T., "Effect of Fly Ash/Sewage Sludge Mixtures and Application Rates on Biomass Production," Savannah St. College, Journal of Environmental Health, Part A, 1995, Vol. 30, nl6, pp. 1327-1337.

SHN Consulting Engineers, "Report of Investigations Well/Spring Survey and Sampling, Louisiana Pacific's Caspar Woodwaste Disposal Site," 1993.

Spain, Kathleen, "Get It Right at the Start," Waste Age, Feb, 1993.

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Last updated: April 18, 2008