A History of the Unity Maine Landfill

According to Class Text Presented 

And Personal Research

By Matt Burdick

Anthony Colon, 

And Steven Thorp

 

Introduction

The Unity landfill is located a few miles from downtown Unity and the college, just down the road from the Common Ground Fair grounds.The landfill was closed and capped in 1991-1992.There are several problems that have occurred since the closing of the dump.A couple of the problems are erosion, leakage, and burrowing by varmints.

History 

The recorded history of waste disposal in the Unity area indicates that before the 1940’s landowners were making use of their own land. Because of the fact that most of them were not producing large volumes of waste and there was not a large amount of non-organics there was not a pressing need for a local landfill. Post 1940’s there was a site selected that was approximately a mile and three tenths from Rt. 220 on a back road that would eventually connect back with 220. Little is known about any site preparation or selection. There is not a geological record of what the land was like before the landfill, however, the Maine Geological Survey suggests a sand and gravel base. This was determined because it sits on a glacial esker, which tend to be large enough in area to support this theory. The surroundings area is a combination of farm and forested land and the edge of the landfill is about 50 feet from the edge of Half-Moon Stream. That would eventually be its downfall. The land was rented from the Mammoth Canning Company for about 100 dollars a year. Eventually the town found the money to purchase the property. This occurred in 1961 for the sum of 2,000 dollars and the town took over the property and all the responsibilities with it.

With the town now managing it, the solid waist intake should have been more regulated but it was not any better. Several companies in town probably contributed to the volume of solid waste. These local companies may have included a telephone co., canning co., several automotive repair shops and a lumber company.

Eventually the landfill was slated for closure to solid waste in 1989. There are several things that contributed to this and several theories as to why. There were several violations where the landfill was open with no attendant present and other such factors like unconfirmed reports of it being the source of several fires. The single determining factor in its closure was its location. The landfill violated Title 38 section 421 of the state ordinance dealing with the disposal of waste within 300 feet of a body of water, written in 1974. Preparations for its closure were then set in place.

Precautions

During the closing of the dump there were a few precautions put into place to help control the affects of the dump on the environment.The first precaution that was put in were gas vents to expel the built up methane that is produced by the breakdown of the material in the dump.If the gas was left to collect underground it would become a bomb waiting to be set off.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The next precaution that was put in place was to control erosion.There are three ridges along the dump at increments on the side to slow and redirect the storm runoff towards prepared ditches.These ridges run perpendicular to the slope of the dump.This is to decrease the velocity of the water and to prevent the erosion of the soil on the side of the dump.

 

Failures

One of the failures that should be talked about first is the location.The reason that the location can be considered a failure is due to the closeness to a river.The dump is located just a few hundred yards from a stream, and only about one hundred yards from a small creek.This is a problem because contamination can seep into the ground and make its way to the river.It became an even bigger problem when the dump's water containment system failed, this will be discussed next.

This next picture gives a good idea of how close the small creek is in relation to the cattails that have the rust flowing from the ground around it.

There are several indications of failure in the design of the dumps systems.One of the most noticeable failures is the growth of cattails on the side of the dump.This is noticeable because cattails are a marsh-land species, that need wet soil to grow.These are out of place due to the fact that they are growing on a hillside where water would runoff.

The reason for the growth of this marshland species is  the steady leakage of contaminated water from the dump.This water is contaminated withchemicals such as iron due to the amount of metal contained inhis section of the dump.

Another major failure is the storm water runoff ditch on one side of the dump.The proper method of construction is to line the ditch with a erosion resistant fabric, and place large square rocks on top of that.The reasoning for the square rocks is to slow down, the water, and to hold the fabric in place.There is no evidence remaining that would support that there was ever an erosion control fabric in place, and little evidence that there were ever large rocks placed there.There are a few large round rocks at the base of the eroded ditch, but there are not enough to support the reasoning upon which they were placed there, and since they are round they would have been easy to roll out of their proper places.

Another problem that is caused by the improper drainage ditch is the spreading of sediment.This is caused when the water with high velocity reaches the flat area at the base of the dump it loses the velocity and drops all the sediment that it was carrying.This leads to grass and vegetation being covered by sediment.

The above picture also demonstrates the destruction of the silt fence that was placed around the base of the dump to help contain the erosion problem at the building of the dump.The silt fencing was placed there to pond the water to help settle the silt out.The erosion problem of the dump in turn has been too much for the silt fence to contain and in turn has failed and the sediment has covered over the fence where is lays.

Also noticeable upon walking around on top of the dump are holes made from burrowing animals. These holes can lead to a few problems.These problems are such things as contamination of runoff water that enters the holes and also the animals can wind up burrowing through the protective layer placed under the top soil.If this occurs then leaking and leaching can both happen.

The final problem we will discuss is that of the second runoff control ditch that was constructed.The ditch was constructed in a spot in which the gradient of the ground is too steep and the angle that the water must turn to flow properly among the ditch is too great an angle for the water to conform to.So the water in turn produced its own pathway to the river instead of flowing the way the ditch was constructed for the water to flow.This leads to the water missing the prepared runoff ditch and thus causes erosion to occur in a place not designed to handle the amount of water flow that it is receiving.

In the above picture you can see that to the right of the ditch is where the prepared runoff ditch has been made and also you can see where the water in fact flows and has eroded away at the ground.

Conclusion

While this report provides an adequate overall perspective into the Unity Maine landfill.Highlighting a short history, evident problems apparent to the average geological student, and accurate depictions of such.It is not intended to be a full representation of the entire picture.Based on what we have found we do believe that the Unity landfill has failed, and is polluting the local watershed.The evidence of its failure has been recorded in our pictures, and we believe this to be sufficient enough to warrant a more extensive environmental investigation.

Credits

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