EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 El Paso is expanding its landfill to keep pace with rapid growth and a surge in daily trash, a $20 million project city leaders say will add about 12 years of capacity \u2014 even as they plan for what comes next.<\/p>\n
The city announced this week that it is adding six new landfill cells across 65 acres at the Greater El Paso Landfill. According to the city of El Paso, crews moved more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt and installed liners designed to protect soil and groundwater.<\/p>\n
Nicholas Ybarra, the city of El Paso\u2019s environmental services director, said the amount of waste coming in has climbed sharply in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s a constant calculation with our office staff and our field staff out at the landfill to make sure we\u2019re meeting the disposal capacities for the city and as we\u2019ve seen since COVID we\u2019ve gone anywhere from 1500 tons per day to close to 2000 tons per day just in those those five years so it\u2019s increased quite a bit,\u201d Ybarra said.<\/p>\n
Ybarra said the city tracks remaining landfill space and how quickly it is being used, including regular surveying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always doing surveys throughout our property quarterly to determine how much land, how much airspace, which is a disposal capacity that we\u2019re using within the landfill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When a landfill reaches capacity, Ybarra said it is sealed with a final cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you reach its capacity, as you\u2019ve seen at the landfill, what we do is we put a final cover on top of the landfill, which consists of three feet of dirt and then six inches of rock armor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After closure, the landfill enters a long-term monitoring process regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. To avoid running out of space, Ybarra said planning for new disposal areas begins years in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, when we\u2019re excavating and doing construction projects for new sites, we\u2019re typically about two and a half years out from when we\u2019re reaching capacity at our current cells, whichever we\u2019re working on, because through the design process and construction, it takes about a year and a half to two years to get everything completed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even with the new cells, Ybarra said the city is already looking ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese six new cells will give us 12 years of disposal capacity, but I\u2019m still, I\u2019m already planning ahead for the next permit that we\u2019re looking at with the city of El Paso,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Work tied to the expansion includes new infrastructure and environmental monitoring systems. Phoenix General Contractors. Those overseeing the completion of the project said crews were in the early stages of installing a water well and expected to finish in about a month.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo right now we\u2019re probably on the first week,\u201d Kalum Anchondo with Phoenix GC said. \u201cIt\u2019s taking about five days or so to go ahead and get the first water well going. And we\u2019re expected to probably finish out here in a month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geologist Andrew Yuhas said he is overseeing the installation of monitoring equipment, including groundwater wells and landfill gas probes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here to be the geologist of record to log and observe the installation of two new groundwater wells, groundwater and water reservoirs, and five landfill gas monitoring probes,\u201d Yuhas said.<\/p>\n
Yuhas said groundwater beneath the landfill is sampled periodically and tested for quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cGroundwater is present beneath the landfill, obviously, and most of El Paso and the Aquifer; they are drilled deep enough to intercept groundwater and it is sampled on a periodic basis, which I\u2019m not exactly sure here, and analyzed the laboratory for quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that monitoring is essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat water quality should understand that facilities like this are required to be very diligent about their monitoring,\u201d Yuhas said.<\/p>\n
City leaders say the landfill expansion is only part of a broader strategy that also includes recycling programs, material reuse and new equipment intended to reduce what ends up in the landfill. Ybarra said the city is working to maintain long-term capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019re looking at permitting additional land as soon as possible to have at least a minimum of 20 years of landfill capacity at any time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For now, the additional space is expected to buy time as El Paso continues to manage thousands of tons of trash each day, while officials look for longer-term solutions beyond expanding landfill acreage.<\/p>\n
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