The San Bernardino County Solid Waste Management Division has finished a special project at the Colton Sanitary Landfill (CSL). The CSL, located in the City of Colton, is a 113-acre site, 88 acres of which were used for waste disposal. The landfill was in operation from 1964 until December 31, 2014.

The original plan for closing the CSL in 2014 involved placing a 4-foot thick layer of soil over the 88 acres used for waste disposal. Since the CSL didn’t have suitable soil on-site, approximately 600,000 cubic yards of soil would need to be brought in for the project. The County looked into alternative closure methods and chose Agru’s Closure Turf, a polyethylene geomembrane with a synthetic grass top layer, for the final cover. This Closure Turf product has many advantages over the traditional soil cover. It is more cost-effective, environmentally friendly to construct, and prevents soil erosion, reducing future maintenance activities and costs.

The Closure Turf final cover was designed by SWT Engineering, built by Sukut Construction, LLC., and took 21 months to complete construction. The project cost approximately $39.8 million and included placing the Closure Turf and making improvements to onsite roads and stormwater drainage infrastructure. This kind of construction is the first of its kind for San Bernardino County Solid Waste Management Division and is one of the only closures of its kind in California.

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