County Garbage Gets Spotlight; Lake Elsinore Takes Bit Role

Riverside County trash received kudos from the state and tarps are the reason.

For its efforts to save money and come up with solutions on how to manage its landfills, Riverside County received a top innovation award for 2011 from the California State Association of Counties for coming up with tarp designs that cover landfills.

“Each day, it costs a pile of cash to cover the piles of trash in Riverside County’s landfills,” said Hans Kernkamp, general manager of Riverside County’s Waste Management Department. “Challenged by the expense, county landfill managers went to work this year on a plan to develop super-strong tarps that could be used like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to cover an area the size of two football fields.”

According to Kernkamp, the nod was given to the county because it’s estimated the tarps could save more than $47 million over the next 16 years.

“For years, many landfills have encapsulated trash piles with dirt each day to keep the waste in place and stabilized. The problem is that dirt takes up space that otherwise could be filled with trash. Over the years, Riverside County used foam material, processed green waste and various-size tarps as an alternative to the daily dirt cover. Some worked better than others,” Kernkamp said, and some ideas, like foam, have been thrown out altogether.

County landfill managers determined in previous experiments that 120-foot-by-120-foot tarps would work best as an alternative to dirt, based on the size of county landfills. 

“We had to figure out how to make tarps that were strong enough,” Kernkamp said. “So we told manufacturers what we needed and asked them for bids.”

In the end, the county came up with designs for four different tarps that are expected to last about a year each and that cost around $9,000 apiece. Despite the tarps’ price tags, not having to cover trash piles with dirt could save Riverside County $3 million a year based on the amount of trash now received at Lamb Canyon Landfill near Beaumont, and at the Badlands Landfill just east of Moreno Valley, Kernkamp explained. Savings also accrue from the deferral of expansion projects, he said.

Over the next year, county landfill managers plan to test the new tarp designs in side-by-side comparisons at the two landfills. 

The new tarp program received the California Counties Innovation Award in September, one of only two such awards given statewide in 2011.

The tarps are made from a High Density Polyethylene woven material sandwiched by layers of Low Density Polyethylene with a thickness of 24 mil. 

“Most of the tarp material research was focused on how the cable -- which the dozers attach to pull the tarp -- can be redesigned and reinforced to minimize tearing,” Kernkamp explained. “Our research showed that while there are manufacturers who sell tarps for landfill purposes, there are no existing landfill tarp industry specifications. Our efforts will hopefully lead to that.”

Garbage is also near and dear to Lake Elsinore. Situated just east of the 15 Freeway off Temescal Canyon Road sits the privately held El Sobrante Landfill. Owned and operated by Waste Management Inc., the site is 1,322 acres, with a 495-acre landfill footprint and a 698-acre habitat conservation area.

“Waste from Lake Elsinore and Wildomar goes to El Sobrante,” Kernkamp said, noting that the average county resident disposes of 4.3 pounds of trash per day.

And there’s room for more, Kernkamp said, explaining that El Sobrante isn’t expected to reach capacity until 2045.

“Riverside County has plenty of landfill space,” he continued. The Badlands Landfill doesn’t reach capacity until 2024; Lamb Canyon won’t fill until 2021. Both have room to expand, Kernkamp explained.

The El Sobrante, Lamb Canyon and Badlands landfills take in 95 percent of the county’s waste, Kernkamp said. They comprise three of the county’s seven active fills. Throughout Riverside County, there are 32 closed landfills, he said.

As for using the new tarps at El Sobrante, Kernkamp said WMI isn’t part of the experiment at this point, but they may opt in if the new design proves successful over the long term.