Landfill Closure and Development of Astoria Sports Complex

Astoria’s new sports complex exemplifies the many benefits of multiple public and private parties coming together in the redevelopment of a brownfield to benefit their community. In addition to capping and closing an inactive municipal landfill, the new athletic field complex has created a new potential source of revenue for the Astoria School District, while freeing up developable land for a much-needed expansion of Columbia Memorial Hospital.

In 1978, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality ordered the City of Astoria to close and cap the city’s 12.5 acre landfill because of failure to prevent landfill-created leachate from flowing into a nearby creek and wetland. While the city subsequently closed the landfill to dumping and in 1986 obtained a closure permit, they were financially unable to proceed with DEQ’s requirements to begin the process for official landfill closure. For more than 30 years, the landfill was an ongoing cost, liability, and risk potential for the City of Astoria.

Additionally, Astoria’s location at the mouth of the Columbia River and against the Northern Oregon Coast Range has resulted in development constraints. When Columbia Memorial Hospital, one of the largest institutions in Astoria, needed to expand, they found very limited options. The existing hospital campus was landlocked, except to the west. The local high school’s outdated football facility, Warren Field, was immediately west of the hospital.

A strategic plan was formulated between Columbia Memorial Hospital, the City of Astoria, and Astoria School District to conduct a land swap with the school district for the old football field in order to have land to expand the hospital campus. In return, Columbia Memorial Hospital would provide the bulk of the $8 million required not only to officially close the landfill for the City, but also to redevelop the old municipal landfill as a new, 17-acre athletic field complex to serve the school district and the entire community.

MFA was retained to design redevelopment of the landfill because of the firm’s diverse array of solid waste experience and its integrated approach, which combines engineering and environmental science.

MFA worked with the city, the school district, and Columbia Memorial Hospital to meet DEQ requirements for official landfill closure, by constructing an impermeable landfill cover that isolates municipal waste, and to grade the landfill surface and design a facility plan that provides the community of Astoria with a long-lasting and safe sports facility. From regulatory agencies to public entities to private businesses, all parties involved expressed satisfaction with the project’s results.

MFA has supported the City of Astoria with engineering inspections and environmental monitoring of the former landfill for more than 15 years. Services include regulatory support, permit renewal, routine measurement of methane gas and groundwater contaminants, and annual evaluation of gas management systems and groundwater impacts around the landfill and sports complex.