The final steps are under way to close the East Third Avenue landfill, which will lead to the redevelopment of the Shoreline and the opening of Seal Point Park. When engineers complete the landfill closure by the end of next summer, they will begin renovating the area to be included in a renovated Shoreline park complete with a windsurfing access point, trails, a dog park and a burrowing owl habitat.
While the entire Shoreline Park will not be complete for at least seven years, they will be breaking ground at Seal Point Park in Spring 2002.
The closure of the landfill is being completed in two phases and the first phase will hopefully be complete by the end of this year, said Min-Tze Cheng, senior engineer for San Mateo.
The goal is to finish the second phase by the end of next summer, Cheng added.
Currently, the city is working on adequately covering the landfill. "We have to have a total of three and a half feet of soil and fabric to cover the whole waste," Cheng said. The three and a half feet will be two feet of foundation, a layer of geoyntahetic clay liner fabric and 18 inches of a vegetative layer.
The landfill was used primarily for household waste and construction debris. The landfill, however, has not been in operation since 1982 and was only used for construction debris after that point until 1987.
Recommended for you
Regulatory agencies from both the city and the state said the landfill was not properly closed in the early '90s and granted permission to the city engineers to close the site.
"It has been a very long process," Cheng said. "The regulatory agencies requirements change over time and staffing changes over time." She said that they have had to change the process in accordance with the agencies changes and this has accounted for some of the delay.
However, Cheng said the main reason that the process has taken so long is because the city did not have enough funding. "We've been accumulating funding over the years and now we have significant funding to go in and implement the construction," she said.
Once the park is built, the city will continue to monitor the site for 30 years. "People will see gas monitoring wells at the park," Cheng said. Gas monitoring wells are poles in the ground used to measure the level of gasses coming out of the ground. The engineers have been doing this for 10 years to ensure the site is safe.
The engineers do not anticipate any more problems but they still have to work with other agencies to complete the process, Cheng said.
However, a possible delay could result due to the fact that the landfill has wetlands on top of it in some places. "We don't have final approval because we have to do more studies to determine the impact on the wetlands," Cheng said. She added that the wetlands were not considered significant because they are on top of the waste. "We will do work to enhance the wetlands," Cheng said.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.