New Hanover County using solar power to help clean landfill wastewater

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Solar powered reverse osmosis at the New Hanover County landfill is helping keep harmful waste water out of surrounding waterways. 

The county recently installed solar panels on top of a reverse osmosis plant at the landfill off US 421. 

Modern landfills have liners that prevent rainwater from seeping through waste and into the ground. That water—known as leachate—can carry harmful compounds from the decomposing waste.  

In New Hanover County, that water is fed into a series of underground pipes, before it’s run through a set of three advanced carbon filters, and released back into the ground as irrigation. 

“On average, we generate between 55 and 75,000 gallons per day,” Recycling and Solid Waste Director Joe Suleyman said. 

Though, Suleyman notes that process uses a lot of energy. 

“So we opted to add solar power onto the roof line of that same facility to help offset some of the cost of that utility charge,” he explained. 

Suleyman notes landfills weren’t always environmentally friendly. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that a liner was required to separate the trash from the earth. 

“New Hanover County Landfill was the first lined landfill in the state about 3 and half years before it was required by regulation,” he said. 

Suleyman says before liners were widely adopted, landfills had a detrimental impact on the surrounding environment. 

“Not having that kind of liner system in place is the reason why there are so many superfund sites at old landfills, because there is so much groundwater contamination,” he explained. 

Suleyman says the landfill will fill up in about 23 years, at which point it will continue to decompose for another 30 years. After that, the landfill will become a public park.  

The top of the landfill’s largest mound is already the highest elevated point in the county.