City of Portola Landfill

The City of Portola Landfill in the Sierra Nevada Mountain town of Portola, CA recently completed its landfill closure that its City Council reviewed in detail of the new State of California approved final landfill closure system known as ClosureTurf®.

The scope of work included: removing the interim cover, supply and install drainage improvements and supply/install a synthetic final cover system known as ClosureTurf® developed by Watershed Geo. The City of Portola landfill was an unlined landfill with highly erosive soils on site causing long term maintenance issues and groundwater contamination problems.

“Prior to ClosureTurf® becoming available we had looked at the traditional Subtitle D vegetative cap, however, one of the biggest advantages of ClosureTurf® is the avoidance of long-term maintenance costs”, stated the City of Portola’s solid waste consultant, Tom Valentino P.E., President of the firm TGV Solid Waste Inc.

“Another one of the advantages of going with the ClosureTurf® system was the ease of installation as we were under a tight time schedule to get the project completed and coincidentally enough there was a storm the night the project was completed and we got the project done on time. We went with a tan color to blend in with the surroundings. From a short-term stability standpoint and a long term, postclosure maintenance cost the ClosureTurf® system was the absolute right decision to make for the Portola Landfill.”

Through the process, Watershed Geo provided the City Council and public with a thorough overview of the State of California approved ClosureTurf® system to complete the final closure of landfills. One of the items that came up at one of the City Council meetings was the cost of the ClosureTurf® system. It was outlined that although the project cost is projected to be approximately the same cost as closure with a traditional Subtitle D method the future maintenance costs for the ClosureTurf® product will be significantly less.

“From a Construction Quality Assurance perspective, installation of a ClosureTurf® cover system required less field personnel during construction than a traditional prescriptive cover system. This resulted in cost savings to the City”, stated Jake Russell P.E., of the City of Portola’s CQA consulting firm Geo-Logic Associates.

“The installation of the ClosureTurf® cover was completed in significantly less time than other similarly sized prescriptive Subtitle D vegetative cap landfill cover systems with which I have been involved. By removing the soil components of the cover system, construction issues associated with the variability and availability of soil materials were eliminated.”