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University. A single gas fire occurred in August 1972, and was eventually extinguished by the Virginia Beach Fire Department.
According to a report filed by engineers after the fire, “there is no indication of explosive or significantly odoriferous problem as a result of the project, and temperature measurements have to date supported other indications that no assessible detrimental effects on the biosphere can be attributed to the project.” Seven ground level vents at the fill now allow for seepage of decomposition gases.
According to Mr. Dorer, this decomposition process poses no danger “as the gases are now finding their own natural route to the surface.”
According to the parks department’s report, incoming trucks were weighed on the site and then weighed again after emptying their loads to give the city an accurate total on the amount of trash that went
into Mount Trashmore. The department’s figures set the tonnage at 640,000 and the per ton disposal cost at $1.98, significantly less than the $7 to $13 per ton the city estimated it would have to pay for burning that same trash.
What about land values?
Mount Trashmore is within several hundred yards of a major highway in an intensively developed section of one of Virginia’s fastest growing metropolitan areas. What has it done to land values? The park’s 160 acres, previously valued at $600 per acre, soared to $25,000 per acre by 1977 (the date of the report, Mount Trashmore Park: Alternative Solid Waste Disposal).
At that same time, the single family residences on the small lots surrounding the park were selling for $40,000 to $86,000. “The Mount Trashmore project has not had a detrimental effect on either land value or residential growth in the immediate surrounding area,” the report notes.
But maybe the most compelling proof of success lies not in an uncontaminated water table, steadily increasing land values or use of the recreational facilities at Mount Trashmore. Maybe the most compelling proof is in imitation.
In 1971, upon completion of Mount Trashmore Park, the City of Virginia Beach began construction of Landfill II. Its 373 acres will include a base hill of 96 acres rising to a height of 150 feet. It will have two lakes, the first covering eight acres and the second 70 acres.
An attempt will be made to recover methane gas from the decomposing trash during the gas generation period, estimated at 15 years. In addition, this second landfill will accept ash and residue from a resource recovery system designed by the Southeastern Public Service Authority to serve the entire Tidewater area. The city’s contract with that Authority wiU expire in the year 2015 and it is anticipated that the landfill will then be converted into a park.
Mount Trashmore, once just a smelly joke, and its sucessor Landfill II show what can be accomplished when a community is willing to try new solutions to old problems.
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