Beginning of the End for Brick Landfill

From 1946 through the early 1970s, just about anything could have been dumped into a landfill in Brick's Herbertsville section, off Sally Ike Road.

The site took in everything from septic waste to vegetative wastes to household and commercial trash, and until Brick Township bought the property in 1973 with an eye toward closing it, there were few records kept of what else, exactly, could have been dumped there.

"If you flushed it down the toilet, it could've ended up here," said Rich McDonald, now Brick's purchasing agent, who began working at the landfill site when the township bought first bought it.

Nothing has been dumped at the 42 acre tract, commonly known as French's Landfill, since 1979, but since 1983 township officials have been caught up in wranglings with the state and federal governments about what could be done with the site. On Thursday morning, an answer finally came, as township officials and a number of engineers were on hand to officially kick off the former landfill's final environmental remediation effort.

"The people behind here are the ones who are really going to benefit," said Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis, pointing to homes built just yards from the landfill property. The mayor was on hand, deep into the woods of the landfill on Thursday, donning a hard hat and ceremonial shovel (EPA regulations, he said, don't allow actual digging at the site) to talk about the project. "They're the ones who have been living next to the last open sore in Brick Township's history. When they go to sell a house, it will no longer be an open wound. It will be a closed Superfund site."

"This is the end of the brownfields that we have in Brick Township," said Councilman Michael Thulen, who was also present on Thursday.

The township council bonded about $14 million for the project in December 2010, which will include a partial clearing of vegetation, installation of a landfill cap and gas ventilating system, construction of a storm water system, landscaping and the widening of Sally Ike Road fronting the site.

Had the township not taken on the task of overseeing the project, the EPA estimated it could have cost taxpayers in upwards of $40 million had the federal government done the work and billed the township.

As it stands now, the former landfill site - fenced in and, under normal circumstances, blocked off from public access - is largely overgrown with a few paths intersecting the grounds. Trees, reeds and grasses grow high into the air, with the ground consisting of a mix of muddy, rocky and sandy soil. In most places, McDonald said, the current cap on the site is about two to three feet deep.

The new cap will consist of stone and a sand drainage layer placed on top of a geosynthetic clay liner, essentially woven fabric mixed with a synthetic clay substance that will prevent rainwater and runoff from mixing with the landfill contents and seeping into groundwater. Engineers with Birdsall Services Group, which is overseeing the project, said Thursday that they will try to maintain as much vegetation at the site as they can.

Eventually, plans call for the on the site that will generate electricity as well as revenue for the township. Pinelands Development will begin constructing a solar panel field on top of the site once the remediation is completed. The solar field will produce between five and six megawatts of power and generate an estimated minimum of $7.5 million per year for the township.

The remediation work is set to begin next week, or the first week in July, and take approximately 12 months to be completed, Thulen said.