NEWS Brief
Cecil County Department of Public Works
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2012

Cecil County Commissioners Announce
Completion of the Central Landfill Cell 4 Redevelopment Project 

Elkton, MD – The Board of County Commissioners proudly announced the completion of the Central Landfill Cell 4 Redevelopment Project at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.  The Board joined staff from the Department of Public Works Engineering and Construction Division and Solid Waste Management Division in congratulating the project team on the successful completion of the project including the recognition of the project contractor, Sevenson Environmental Services, Inc., for their safe work performance that included over 90,000 work hours without a lost work day incident during a continuous two year construction period under diverse weather and site conditions.

Disposal Cell 4 was originally constructed at the Cecil County Central Landfill in the late 1980s and was operated into the early 1990s.  In 1994, the County ceased operation of Cell 4, based on an engineering study that expressed concern that the landfill liner and leachate system integrity might be compromised if waste was continued to be placed in the cell, even though it had not reached capacity.  At that time, Cell 4 was closed with an intermediate soil cover.  The premature closure of Cell 4 reduced landfill lifetime by approximately 10 years.

In November 2009, the Cecil County Department of Public Works initiated a project to redevelop existing disposal Cell 4.  The project was performed to gain landfill life lost by the premature closure of Cell 4, preserve long term environmental protection at the landfill and facilitate the future expansion of the overall landfill area.  To accomplish this, the existing cell was retrofitted with a state of the art liner and leachate collection system meeting current regulatory standards.  The liner replacement was necessary to ensure a long-term solid waste disposal solution for county residents and provide environmental protection for the future.  DPW Project Manager, Craig Marker, stated, "The project will insure the long term integrity of the Cell 4 liner system as the landfill is expanded.  This is critical because Cell 4 is centrally located within the proposed final build-out of the landfill".

The project included the excavation and relocation of approximately 1,000,000 cubic yards of municipal solid waste from existing landfill disposal Cell 4 (enough to fill 370 Olympic size swimming pools), followed by the installation of approximately 16 acres of new composite soil/geosynthetic liner system (the equivalent area of 12 NFL football fields), a new leachate collection system, and other related site improvements.  Three hundred sixty tons of tires previously disposed in Cell 4 were also recycled during the project (the equivalent weight of 200 mid-size automobiles).

The project was completed over a two year period and was performed in two stages with half of the existing cell redeveloped in the first year of construction and the remaining half redeveloped in the second year of construction.  In each stage, waste relocation generally occurred in the Winter and Spring months and cell construction in the Summer and Fall months. Marker stated, "The innovative two stage approach, designed by our consultant Blazosky Associates, Inc., not only helped to minimize odors during waste excavation and allow the landfill to remain open during the project but also allowed the redevelopment to occur within the limited available disposal space of the landfill without having to take existing waste offsite for disposal".

In Stage A, approximately half of the existing cell was excavated and placed into an adjacent active disposal cell (Cell 5).  Once all the waste was removed from the Stage A area a new liner system was installed. When the liner system in Stage A was completed and certified, Stage B was initiated.  In Stage B, waste from the second half of Cell 4 was relocated to the newly lined Stage A area.  Once all the waste was removed from the Stage B area, a new liner system was installed.   The Stage B liner system was certified for use by the Maryland Department of the Environment at the beginning of December 2011 and the County plans to put the newly lined area into operation before the end of January 2012.

The project was completed ahead of schedule and 3% under budget at a cost of $14.1 million. The newly lined Cell 4 area will provide
an additional 10-12 years of disposal life to Central Landfill.  "The Cell 4 Redevelopment Project is a key part of our landfill expansion program which will allow the Cecil County Central Landfill to meet the County's solid waste disposal needs for decades to come," said Scott Flanigan, County Director of Public Works.  Board of County Commissioners President Jim Mullin stated, "Public Works staff recognized the need and did an excellent job managing this project, which upgraded existing resources to meet new environmental standards". 

Media Contact:
Craig Marker, P.E.
Public Works Department
(410) 996-5268 (Office)
(410) 996-8414 (Fax)
cmarker@ccgov.org