Landfill Planning, Permitting, Design, and Construction

Background

As part of our engineering support for Brown County, Foth assisted with planning, permitting, design, and construction of the County’s South Landfill in Holland, WI. This greenfield site was originally permitted for a county solid waste landfill in the 1990s, but the project was set aside for the future as part of the County entering into a regional solid waste disposal agreement between Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago Counties, known as BOW. As part of the agreement, the South Landfill was the last site to serve as the regional solid waste disposal location under BOW.

Approach

Working in tandem with the County, we planned permitted, designed and constructed the new regional facility. Our assistance used a systematic scope of work and approach that allowed for decisions to be made about development in a timely manner, including:

• Established a Resource Recovery Park Master Plan document for the South Landfill property as a template for the site that identified critical facility infrastructure locations, planned for future landfill expansion, and set aside parts of the property for implementing future sustainable management technology such as waste processing.
• Completed Plan of Operation permitting and updated the landfill design to bring the facility in compliance with current regulations, while avoiding going back through the Feasibility Determination permit process.

• Created a design team and delivery schedule that allowed the County to design, bid, and construct all aspects of the ~$17 million landfill construction project at a greenfield site, including all roads, utilities, buildings, scales, leachate storage tank, and the 26-acre composite lined landfill cell.
• Provided full-time construction management services for the County as part of an integrated team to facilitate and document construction in a phased approach over two construction seasons.

Results

Completion of the South Landfill within the County’s schedule allowed the BOW partners to have the needed regional landfill disposal capacity on time. Working with Brown County has produced the following results:

• The Master Plan set aside and designated areas of the South Landfill property for future needs including;
  • Organics Management
  • Waste Processing and Resource Recovery
  • Sustainable Landfill Expansion
• The South Landfill was designed to account for the existing electric utility easement and maximize the landfill disposal capacity while minimizing re-permitting activities.
• The permit planning allowed adequate time to delineate and mitigate wetland impacts, install new groundwater monitoring wells, and conduct updated background monitoring.
• The construction work was split into two construction seasons allowing 1 million CY of excess soil to be relocated for fill during 2020, and construction of the landfill and other infrastructure in 2021.
• The planning, permitting, and construction approach resulted in successfully meeting the schedule and budget, opening the landfill on January 3, 2022.