Newland Park Landfill Cell 7 nears completion, but deadline may slip

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. — Construction of Cell 7 at the Newland Park Landfill is making progress as Wicomico County works to meet a looming deadline.

Over the past year, landfill employees have been working to ensure the facility meets Maryland Department of the Environment standards and regulations.

Adam Corey, acting landfill superintendent, said maintaining a landfill and developing a new cell involves much more than digging a hole in the ground. He said crews conducted exploratory excavations in May and June to determine how much waste was buried beneath the site.

“We had hollow-stem auger probe rigs placed down in the cell before any work started to determine the level and extent of waste underneath our feet,” Corey said.

Officials initially expected to remove about 15,000 to 20,000 cubic yards of waste from the cell. However, the actual amount was closer to 88,000 cubic yards.

“If that subgrade does not sit on top of good structural material, you’re not going to be able to build your cell,” Corey said.

Once the waste is replaced with approved structural material, the Maryland Department of the Environment conducts a final inspection. For the county, that inspection is scheduled for Thursday.

Corey said crews must install and test the clay layer before moving forward with the cell’s liner system.

“The clay gets pushed in one-foot lifts, and samples are taken with a Shelby tube and analyzed. Then we can move forward with lining the cell,” Corey said.

He said the clay layer is critical to the cell’s structural integrity and helps protect the site from weather-related delays.

“Once that clay is down, your site is effectively weatherproof,” Corey said, explaining that the nearly impermeable layer helps prevent the underlying material from becoming saturated.

Corey said the earthwork preparation is a critical step in the construction process. Once it is complete, crews can finish the cell, although he expects the landfill may open after the Nov. 16 deadline.

“Could it be substantially complete, open and ready to take trash on Nov. 16? At this point, I would say it’s probably going to be a little bit past that,” Corey said.

He added that the county has continued working to ensure the landfill has enough capacity to avoid shutting down and sending waste elsewhere.

The new cell is expected to provide several years of additional capacity. Corey said the landfill currently handles an average of about 11,000 tons of waste per month, with annual totals reaching more than 158,000 tons.

Based on the cell’s dimensions, officials hope it will provide about five and a half to six years of capacity.

“We don’t ever want to be in a situation again where we’re waiting this long to get cell construction up and running,” Corey said.

With Cell 7 expected to be the last cell constructed on Brick Kiln Road, Corey said the county must begin planning for future expansion across the road.

“Really, to give ourselves the breathing room the county deserves, we need to get across that road,” Corey said. “Let’s get a horizontal expansion on board. That way, we don’t have to worry about reaching capacity before we’re ready to move to a new cell.”

Corey said planning for that expansion is essential to ensuring the landfill can continue serving the county without disruptions.