Issue 48: 37 Years Ago: Board Approves New Sanitary LandfillThis is a featured page

Photo of hauler emptying trash at the landfill Thirty-seven years ago, on December 1, 1970, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved opening a new sanitary landfill about four miles south of Leesburg.

At that meeting, the Board unanimously reaffirmed its decision of the previous July to take steps to purchase
property on Evergreen Mills Road that would serve as the county’s first sanitary landfill. However, the size of the property was scaled back, from 200 to 138 acres.

The Board also unanimously adopted two ordinances that imposed tighter regulations on the storage and disposal of solid waste, to become effective on March 15, 1971.

The new landfill site cost $167,000 to purchase and another $26,000 to prepare for use as a landfill. It took the county less than six months to move through the permitting process. After the state issued the county “permit number one” for the landfill, it opened for business on March 15, 1971, the same day the new solid waste regulations took effect.

According to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, the decision to open the new landfill was hastened in part by Keep Loudoun Beautiful and other groups, which had been pressing the Board of Supervisors for a decision on the issue.

County Engineer J. T. Barnes told the Board in July 1970 that the staff had looked all over the county for a suitable site that met three key requirements – soil conditions, proximity to the location of prime refuse generation points, and access to highways. The Evergreen Mills Road site met all three requirements, he said. He noted that the site was fully wooded, so it would be shielded from public view from both Evergreen Mills Road and Rt. 15.

When the landfill opened, it was expected to last about 20 years. This estimate proved to be quite accurate.

In November 1989, the voters of Loudoun County approved a $13.5 million bond referendum to finance the purchase and development of a new landfill.

After another public process, the Board of Supervisors on May 1, 1990, voted to purchase a 302-acre site adjacent to the landfill that had been in operation since 1971.

The county’s solid waste management facility is still in operation at the Evergreen Mills Road location.
Sources: Loudoun Times-Mirror
Loudoun Overview
Board of Supervisors Meeting Minutes
Image: Trash hauler empties load at the Loudoun County landfill, 1989, photo by Jim Barnes


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