Mathews County is no longer on the hook for post-closure care at the county’s former sanitary landfill on Ridge Road.

County administrator Steve Whiteway announced during last month’s supervisor’s meeting that, after an evaluation, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality had decided that the county will no longer have to pay approximately $25,000 a year to monitor the groundwater and maintain the cap at the landfill. DEQ had already released the county from having to pay for gas monitoring at the site.

The wells that were installed to monitor groundwater and gas will have to either be maintained in good working order or be "properly abandoned," said a letter from Kyle Winter, DEQ’s deputy regional director. The county is now responsible for the site, including any future problems, and it has to prevent the facility from becoming "an open dump, hazard or nuisance."

DEQ has suggested that the county protect the cap; inspect it at least quarterly, especially after major storms; keep an eye out for erosion; make sure that if the property is sold and developed, any survey plats and deeds note the nature of the property; and make sure that any future buildings placed at the site are designed and built to prevent the accumulation of decomposition gases.

In other words, said Whiteway during the meeting, maintenance will consist mainly of bushhogging the site twice a year.

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