Super ultra exciting landfill facts:

-There are 14 counties that bring waste to Coffin Butte Landfill, with Benton and Linn counties relying on Coffin Butte exclusively
-There is a recycling depot for areas that lack curbside recycling services
-The area was formerly a defense site and Camp Adair needed a place to dump its garbage
-From the '50s to the early '70s landfills were "open burn" landfills. Afterwards, clay lining was introduced for groundwater concerns.
- In the early '90s, the government stepped in, requiring stricter regulations: synthetic liners, gas collection, and leachate collection systems. Prior to these new regulations, there were around 8,000 landfills in the US. Afterwards, the smaller ones shut down. Currently there are roughly 3,000.
- Leachate is the term used for contaminated storm water that percolates through garbage. It is trucked into Corvallis for treatment.
- The landfill itself covers around 92 acres.
- The OR Dept of Environmental Quality has conducted waste composition studies. Currently there is enough organic material ending up in landfills to generate decomposition.
-Temperature, pressure, and oxygen levels are monitored for the danger of subsurface fires.
-The gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and others) that escape from the landfill are collected via pipes and transferred to five internal combustion engines which generate enough energy to power 4,000 homes.
-The electricity is distributed to 12 different utility cooperatives and customers can choose to purchase this form of renewable energy.
-The landfill was previously covered with black plastic but now soil and grass cover it, allowing better avenues for gases to escape.