File photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanThe leachate treatment plant is in a remote part of Northampton's sanitary landfill, seen here two years ago.
NORTHAMPTON – The big leachate treatment plant at the Glendale Road landfill seldom seen by the average citizen is about to be decommissioned and put to new uses.
(Video is not the same site. The video does not say where it was recorded.)
The 60,000-square-foot building at the far reaches of the landfill was built along with the lined portion of the facility in 1990 to treat the leachate that the lining was designed to trap before pumping it into the city’s stormwater system. However, the leachate, which is the liquid that accumulates when rainwater filters through the landfill’s contents, tested “low hazard” and the state allowed the city to skip to treatment and let it flow directly into the stormwater system, according to Department of Public Works Director Edward S. Huntley.
Unused since the late 1990s, the facility needs to be decommissioned as part of the landfill’s closing, which is projected to take place late next year when it reaches capacity. With that in mind, the Board of Public Works has earmarked $106,610 to hire the environmental engineering firm Wright-Pierce to begin the decommissioning process.
As Huntley explained it, Wright-Pierce would take on a number of tasks, including preliminary design work and an inventory of the plant’s equipment. The building contains pumps, mixing machine, fiberglass vessels and other items that might be of use to other communities with leachate treatment facilities. Wright-Pierce would determine the value of any reusable equipment in the hope that the city could recoup some of the cost of the decommissioning, Huntley said.
One idea that has been proposed is to use the building as a storage facility for the city’s archives, Huntley said. The building already has bathrooms, office space and a security system.
As part of the landfill closing, the city must also fill in two leachate lagoons lagoons that are presently filled with rainwater. Huntley said he does not yet know what the total cost of the decommissioning will be.
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