Miramar is the city of San Diego's only active landfill. And it's running out of space. Miramar is scheduled to close in early 2012.
Sturdevan: It's a really big problem that confronts the city right now. We're trying to address that in a couple of different ways. One, in the short term, we try to be as efficient as possible in our operation here, compact the trash as much as possible. The second thing that we're trying to do is we requested a height increase at the landfill, which would give us an additional 20 feet. And if we can get the approval from all the regulatory agencies and our landlord to allow us to do that, that would extend the life of the landfill three-and-a-half to four years.
The landlord is the United States Marine Corps. San Diego pays to lease the land, and the Marines get free dumping rights. But if the trash gets too high, helicopters and jets can't fly safely.
Phelps: I'm standing here in the very last cell of the Miramar landfill, and the cell behind us, when that fills up at the end of this year, they'll start it on this space. And when this space fills up, that's it, the Miramar Landfill is full.
When Miramar fills up, the city must truck its trash to other landfills. There are others in the county, but the city would have to pay steep dumping fees to private companies. The other option is build a new landfill. That's something no one wants to do.
Sturdevan: For the long-term purposes, we are right now engaged in a strategic planning process. We have a citizens group that is meeting. They met last week. They are meeting once a month. What they are doing is looking at all the different technologies, different options, whether it be rail haul, new landfills, more recycling, zero waste. What's the best way to address the waste generation from the people of San Diego? And what are we going to do to replace this landfill when it finally does close?
The city does have an agreement with Sycamore Canyon landfill to deposit trash, but that's expensive, and it doesn't cover the whole city. In 1994, voters approved construction of a new landfill in Gregory Canyon, but that project has gone nowhere.
Old, inactive landfills are all around us. One of the oldest is right here, in Balboa Park.
Ray Purtee is with Environmental Services Department, City of San Diego.
Phelps: We're on top of a landfill, correct?
Purtee: Yes.
Phelps: But I don't see any trash anywhere.
Purtee: Well, it's all covered up with soil. And regulation requires that.
Years after this landfill got covered up by a baseball field, toxic gases are still breathing beneath the surface.
Purtee: The bacterial decomposition of the waste produces carbon dioxide in about equal amounts and we call that landfill gas, but there's also about a thousand trace gases, because there's everything buried here. So we want to collect that and incinerate it. And the reason we want to collect it is methane is explosive and landfill gas can migrate offsite through native soils.
So how they get rid of the gas? Huge vacuums, of course.
Phelps: So you've got pipes throughout the landfill and you're literally sucking methane out of the landfill, out of the garbage, and into this area.
Purtee: Yes this blower is doing the sucking, and it's blowing the gas into the flare stack. There's a burner chamber at the lower end. And there's an igniter can there.
At Miramar, the city converts that gas to electricity, which powers a sewage treatment plant.
That kind of creativity may be what it takes to save our landfill. The city says the average San Diegan generates eight pounds of waste a day.
Compare that to the statewide average of five-and-a-half pounds a day. And the city recycles a little more than half its waste. If we want enough space for trash in the future, the percentage of recycled waste will have to get much higher.
