Garbage is piled so high, Snohomish County dumps need to close before trash combusts
Snohomish County has a smelly 45-foot-tall problem that could go up in flames.
Two Snohomish County transfer stations are almost at capacity as the amount of garbage has reached unprecedented levels due to supply chain issues, said Snohomish County Public Works Director Kelly Snyder.
Up in flames?
As garbage sits, it decomposes and heats up. If enough heat is generated, a fire could quickly spread through the pile and damage the facility. The cores of the piles are already 130 degrees, Snyder said, and the Southwest transfer station has already had a close call with a small fire about a week ago.
“Our quick-acting staff were able to get it down off the pile, spread it out, and the fire was put out very quickly,” Snyder said.
A 24-hour “fire watch” has been instituted for about 10 days, she said, and workers are vigilantly monitoring the heat of the piles while also keeping an eye out for smoke and flames.
If they wanted to be green, they could be composting the garbage. Run pipes through each layer and circulate water to extract the heat. They could also capture the methane and CO gasses that come out and use them to run generators.
This place: Jackson County Green Energy Park is about 60 miles from where we will be living in North Carolina. They have a landfill and run a glass studio, a blacksmith forge and a pottery studio all from the decomposition gasses. Want to talk about green energy? That is a perfect example of green energy.
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