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There’s a time for everything.
There was a time in 1980 when Camelot Landfill opened. Eventually there will be a time for it to close.
Computer models suggest the waste management facility will be full in 23 years, based on current density, volumes and diversion, according to information from the Farmers Branch Public Works Department.
Farmers Branch City Councilmembers and city staff already have started planning for that time.
The landfill weighs on the mind of Mayor Terry Lynne.
“My biggest worry is we have a liability facing the city,” he said. “The city has the responsibility to manage it for an additional 30 years after [it closes] … This is a liability that faces every single resident of the city, not businesses.”
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) requires the city to annually update how much it will cost to close and maintain the landfill for years after it is no longer in use. The city will need to continue collecting methane gas and monitoring the soil and water quality.
If the landfill closed this year, the city estimates it will cost $40 million dollars to close and maintain the landfill as required. That number was $32 million in 2015, according to the city’s 2017 application to expand the landfill.
As a result, in January, city residents will start paying a trash fee that will go into a fund dedicated to the landfill closure. Homeowners will pay $5 per month with their water utility bill while seniors and those who are disabled will pay $2.50 per month.
While the fee will be enacted in 2025, and the city council and staff worked through a tough budget season this summer to reduce the tax burden on residents, the fee was put in place through Ordinance No. 3824 on Sept. 5, 2023, before the elections of City Councilmembers Roger Neal, District 3, or David Reid, District 5.
Tina Bennett-Burton, District 2, who was elected in November to fill a vacated seat, was on the City Council when the ordinance was passed.
Located at 580 Huffines Blvd. in Lewisville, the 460-acre property was in unincorporated Denton County, which has since been annexed by the City of Lewisville, when Farmers Branch originally purchased the land and neighbors a Waste Management landfill to the south and a construction and demolition landfill to the north.
Camelot Landfill is a Type 1 Municipal Solid Waste Facility, which means it accepts everything except hazardous waste. Almost a million tons, approximately 965,000 tons, of materials were accepted in a full year between 2023 and 2024, according to a fact sheet provided by Deputy Director of Public Works (Streets and Sustainability) Shane Davis. Eighty-one percent of accepted material is municipal solid waste. It comes from Farmers Branch and other cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Approximately 23 million tons of capacity remains.
The numbers are difficult to comprehend, but driving near the landfill, it is clearly a mountain of trash.
The TCEQ permit requires the final maximum elevation of the landfill, including the final soil cover, be not more than 675 feet above sea level. The current elevation is 625 feet.
The deepest excavation for the liner and sumps, which collect liquid leachate, is 387 feet above sea level.
Near the top of the manmade hill, the wind blows strong, carrying litter from the area where 700 to 1,000 trucks per day dump their refuse and annoy Davis, who said it is difficult to hire people willing to pick up litter. The elevation also allows for a view of downtown Dallas on a clear day.
There is an odor, but as Solid Waste Manager Mike Rivera said, “A landfill is not as bad as a wastewater treatment plant.”
Winds, litter and seagulls are the most difficult challenges at Camelot. The seagulls are part of a flock that Davis said migrates to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
He said the city is fortunate not to have feral hogs on the property.
“We’re constantly fighting litter. Litter and dust,” Rivera said. “Once you’re up this high, you’re constantly dealing with the wind.”
To prevent issues from litter, animals and leachate, which is the wastewater product produced when rainwater hits trash as well as the liquid that seeps from the waste, workers must cover trash with soil within 24 hours, Rivera said. When an area of the landfill is finished, it is covered with at least two feet of soil and planted with native plants to reduce erosion. The landfill has a settling period of seven to 10 years, he said.
Not far from the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, the landfill lies in a 100-year floodplain.
“They got permission, yes,” Davis said when asked.
To protect the water, the landfill is lined with two feet of compacted clay soil and a geosynthetic membrane composite liner that drains all the leachate that seeps to a collection system that sends the leachate to a wastewater treatment plant.
After garbage trucks dump their haul, compactors drive over and over the mound forcing all the air out and reducing the rubbish to the smallest size possible. Bulldozers cover the trash with a thick layer of soil so it isn’t exposed more than 24 hours.
“Everything breaks down,” Davis said of the liner. “It is the best technology we have to date.”
The heap produces about 5,000 gallons of leachate each day. A 100,000-gallon storage tank sits at the base of the hill, collecting leachate before it goes to the sewer.
Twenty-two wells monitor ground water.
The goal is to prevent any water getting in, thus preventing breakdown and decomposition, and to prevent any liquid from getting out.
The landfill does produce methane and carbon dioxide. Methane is a greenhouse gas and not allowed to be released into the atmosphere.
Three 75-megawhatt engines convert some of the menthane into electricity and return it to the grid. Each engine powers 800 to 1,400 homes. The city is not allowed to be reimbursed for the electricity production, Davis said.
In addition, a flare burns about 2,015 standard cubic feet per minute.
According to the Public Works information sheet, Farmers Branch residents generate about 878 tons of waste per month, or 9,657 tons in a full year between 2023 and 2024. They self-haul 81.4 tons per month to Camelot.
Recycling does save space. One thousand, two hundred twenty one tons of waste were recycled by Farmers Branch residents in 2023-2024, which averaged 23.2 pounds per home per month.
It isn’t as easy as throwing every used container into the recycling bin though. China, Vietnam and other countries previously purchased recycling from the United States but stopped because they consider American recycling too contaminated. Davis said containers for recycling must be clean or they end up in the landfill.
He said peanut butter containers are the worst, and said dedicated recyclers should throw them in the dishwasher to completely clean them before putting them in the recycling.
“If you are unsure, throw it away,” he said.
Glass is also a challenge because of its weight. He said that if there wasn’t a fiberglass-manufacturing company nearby, he wasn’t sure if glass would be recycled locally.
Once Camelot closes, weight will become even more of an issue for the city’s public works department. Davis said he thinks Farmers Branch garbage will likely have to be hauled to the McCommas Bluff Landfill south of Dallas at 5100 Youngblood Rd.
Davis and Rivera estimated that trash-hauling trucks get three to five miles to a gallon of gas.
“The further you have to drive, your costs just go up,” Davis said.
Lynne said that residents should expect to pay for trash service once the landfill closes, in addition to the landfill closure fees, if the city doesn’t fund the post-closure costs in advance.
“Later is going to be here before you know it,” he said.
