This included installing a multi-layer protective cap over 70 acres of the property, a leachate extraction system to contain contaminated groundwater, and a permanent landfill gas collection system. The goal of these projects is to contain contaminants to the former landfill site.
Construction on all of these efforts started in 2022 and was completed this October, according to Dayton and U.S. EPA officials. Inspections of the cap and other installations are pending, and monitoring of gas and groundwater will continue at the Superfund site.
Prior to being used as landfill, the site was a sand-and-gravel quarry. Mining operations created large, unlined depressions across much of the site. The depressions were later used for waste disposal, according to the EPA.
More than half of the Superfund area was used for landfilling industrial and municipal wastes into unlined gravel pits. This included used oil, solvents, scrap paint, lampblack, electrical transformers and asbestos-filled brake grindings, according to the EPA. The landfill sits above the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, which is the source of water for most of Montgomery County’s residents.
The next use for the property is uncertain and limited, but Dayton sustainability manager Meg Maloney said the city is working to understand the feasibility of solar opportunities at the site.
Dion Novak, the remedial project manager for the Valleycrest site, said a solar project was the most popular suggestion among people who live near the site.
The EPA worked with a Community Advisory Group during the clean-up at the landfill and construction at the site, Novak said.
“The EPA has worked pretty extensively with the local community,” he said. “They’ve been wonderful to work with.”
Work outside of the Superfund site is also expected. A $250,000 project will pave a road for residents living near the former landfill.
Old North Dayton Neighborhood Association president Matt Tepper called the pavement project a victory for residents living near the Superfund site.
“We appreciate that so much,” he said. “All these parts are coming together and that’s wonderful. It may seem to be a small number, but those are people’s homes, their environment. Each individual person is important.”
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
The project comes after households near the former landfill objected to the EPA’s plan to close an access road off Brandt Pike they had been using to get to their homes. There are roughly 15 houses on Valleycrest Drive, eight of which are north of the former landfill, according to Dayton city officials.
“The residents were upset about this, as they grew accustomed to using the access road and did not want to drive through the landfill to get to their homes,” said Maloney. “This project ensures they will not have to do that.”
This access road was opened to the residents after the EPA shut down the portion of Valleycrest Drive that cuts through the Superfund site.
The EPA approved the remediation plan for Valleycrest landfill in 2021, proposing the closing of the access road and the reopening of the main stretch of Valleycrest Drive.
After residents raised concerns about driving through the Superfund site to the city, Dayton negotiated the purchase of the temporary road and obtained funding for the pavement project to make the roadway permanent.
The potential responsible parties footing the bill for the $35 million clean-up of the former landfill are also funding the pavement project, according to Dayton officials.
Dayton and Riverside in October approved a small boundary change for their cities along a portion of Valleycrest Drive for the project. Pavement work is expected to be finished in 2024.
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