The following case study is written by my friend and colleague Carl Fritz. Carl is the best solid waste engineer in New York State. Carl is also available for consulting in all places except New York.

Author: Carl E. Fritz, Jr., P.E.

Environmental Engineer

email: carlfritz@hotmail.com

To mine or not to mine. That is no longer the question at the Town of Riverhead’s Youngs Avenue landfill. Located in Suffolk County on the east end of Long Island, the landfill encompasses approximately 40 acres of a 70 acre site and is surrounded by farm land and the ever-increasing suburban sprawl. Operations at the landfill began in the mid to late 1960's, and solid waste generated within the Town of Riverhead and neighboring municipalities was disposed of there for thirty years. 

FIGURE 1

Most older landfills on Long Island generally started out as sand mines. Once the sand pit was excavated down to the water table, there was no longer a use for the site. These sites often became landfills as filling provided a convenient way to bring the site back up to pre-existing grades. Other sites that became landfills were low lying wetland areas that could not be developed.

The major problem with the older landfills is that they did not have any environmental protection features. Anything deposited into the landfill had the potential to be released into the environment. For example, if a drum of used oil was deposited into the landfill, the drum could develop a leak and allow its contents to get into the groundwater.

Because Long Island gets its drinking water from a sole source aquifer directly beneath the island, an additional mechanism to protect the aquifer was needed. The Long Island Landfill Law was enacted to help protect drinking water. Basically, the Long Island Landfill Law states that after December 18, 1990, any landfill located within the deep flow recharge area could no longer accept untreated solid waste for disposal. The one exception was the disposal of clean fill, which consists of inert materials such as concrete, steel, and construction and demolition debris.

In order for landfills to continue to receive waste, the n