A Burlington County company wants to buy Hamilton Township's old landfill and turn it into a major New Jersey solar energy site.
Officials with Land Resource Solutions, hired by the township a few years ago to help environmentally secure and redevelop the landfill, say state and federal programs that promote clean and renewable energy could make it financially feasible for them to proceed with the $50 million project.
"That's our goal," said Trevan Houser, a principal in Land Resource Solutions. "We think it's a good site. We think it's a good fit."
Along with gaining revenue from the sale of the land, Houser said the township could buy discounted energy from the site.
Houser and township officials say the proposal also means the municipality wouldn't have to pay millions of dollars to environmentally secure the landfill. That process traditionally means capping a landfill with clay to prevent water from seeping through the site and carrying pollutants into the ground, installing monitoring systems and performing 30 years worth of state-required environmental monitoring.
"No out-of-pocket expenses to the township," Houser said.
The landfill is located near the township's industrial park in Mays Landing. The site is also near many Atlantic County government buildings, such as the jail, criminal court complex and schools.
Mayor Roger Silva said the township, Land Resource and Atlantic County might consider a partnership that would also provide reduced-cost energy to those county facilities. Another possibility would be to use reduced energy costs as another way to attract more businesses to the industrial park, he said.
"The problem that I have is that you can't get it done fast enough," Silva said.
Houser estimated it could take about three years before the solar energy field is operational.
As for the county, Atlantic County Administrator Gerald DelRosso said it's already considering proposals for two solar panel arrays - one for the jail, and another to be built over the criminal court complex parking lot.
However, DelRosso said the county would be willing to at least discuss some kind of arrangement with the township.
The 16-acre landfill has been closed for about 20 years.
For years, township officials discussed what to do with the site. One major obstacle involved finding the millions of dollars necessary to environmental secure and then redevelop the land.
Land Resource is using $379,000 in state grant money to study what is buried beneath the landfill and whether it's causing any underground water and soil pollution.
Township and Land Resource officials estimate the site could hold enough solar panels to generate about 6 megawatts of power. That's enough to power about 5,000 homes for a year, Houser said.
Houser contends that one way to reduce closing costs is to convince the state Department of Environmental Protection and state Pinelands Commission that a different kind of cover for the landfill than clay could be safely used.
Houser said his company is studying alternative cap materials that would allow water to filter through the township landfill site. Water has filtered through the landfill for the past 20 years, he said, and tests indicate no potentially dangerous problems with soil and ground water.
"It has stabilized," he said.
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