Stormont landfill could become site for solar power

Middlesex Supervisors recently visited a solar farm at a former Albemarle County landfill site, in an effort to decide whether a solar farm will work at the former Middlesex county landfill site at Stormont.

At the board’s Tuesday, Oct. 7, meeting Robert L. Handley Jr. of ARM Group, the firm that is monitoring the closing of the old county landfill at Stormont said that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality allows solar farms on landfills, but there can be no penetration into the cap.

Jamaica District Supervisor Wayne Jessie said that the Albemarle County solar farm has no type of penetration into the cap at all and that everything is held down with either “concrete or ballast or counterweights for stability.”

“Most everything is mounted in cement and held down additionally with ballasts on top of the ground,” said Jessie. “We have been paying lots of money for over 20 years now to close this landfill. I see a solar farm on the property as a way to get some taxpayer dollars back into county coffers.”

Dominion’s offer

The Dominion RFP offers to lease the properties from the county for $1,960,254 over 25 years. It was for $36,000 per year/$1,000 per acre for the Thacker property and $25,000 per year/$700 per acre for the landfill property with an annual 2% escalation.

The old landfill site has an area of approximately 60.18 acres with streams/creeks on either side of the property. The Thacker property, to the west of the old landfill, has an area of approximately 35.4 acres with stream/creek bisecting the southwestern portion of the property. About 20 acres of the Thacker property are wooded, while 13.4 acres are open and useable for solar panels.