EPA to clean Virginia landfill

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $22 million in funding from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will go toward cleaning up the Hidden Lane Landfill in Loudoun County, Virginia, the Virginia Mercury reports.

The landfill is known as a Superfund site, a designation that identifies heavily polluted areas. Work is underway to clean up a chemical present that can lead to a central nervous system condition.

According to the EPA, the 25-acre site was a privately owned landfill opened in 1971 to accept solid and construction waste, discarded appliances and more before the county closed it in 1984.

About five years after the closure, the degreasing solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, was found in the wells that supplied water to homes in a nearby subdivision, and the landfill site was added to the Superfund program’s National Priorities List in 2008. Related health issues include heart problems, numbness and Parkinson’s disease.

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The first step in the project is excavation of the contaminated dirt, a $5 million project that is expected to be completed this summer. Next, design and construction of a $17 million new waterline will be installed over about five years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore office to connect about 110 homes in the area to a fresh source of water.

The location will then be eligible for reuse, possibly for solar energy generation or a ball field, says Charlie Root, EPA remedial project manager.