Trammell Tours the San Angelo Landfill

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Republic Service hosted a landfill luncheon and tour a week ago.

Republic services invited customers to come out and tour the San Angelo Landfill. They first served barbecue catered by Fiddle Fire Catering and Chuckwagon Cooking. Served was brisket, sausage, chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, peach cobbler, all with sweet tea. 

Following lunch, visitors piled into vans and the tour began. The tour headed around to the back side of the landfill. The first stop was at the water testing spot just near the fence on the far south side. This is to test the run-off water to make sure it is not hazardous. 

Then the journey continued further into the facility until it reached the far east point of the landfill. This is where Republic pointed out the new 30-foot-high golf fence. According to Adolph Mascorro, the Landfill Operations Supervisor, the fence was put in as the last defense for the trash that could blow over the fence. 

"At the landfill there are three lines of defense." said Mascorro. "The first is the fence around the workplace, then it is the fence set up to the north, and then now we have this high fence." 

Another feature of the landfill are the methane pipes just about every 15 feet from the next sticking out of the ground. The lines all lead to the north side of the field where it is burned off. 

The tour concluded near the work site of the cell that they are working on. A cell is a partition of the landfill. All current trash is placed in an operational cell until it is full and another cell must be opened. The cell they are working was opened in February and has a two-year-span but could be longer if compacted right. 

"This is all about airspace." said Mascorro, referring too how high the trash can be stacked inn a landfill. "The more you compact, the more airspace, the more life you can save for your landfill." 

The landfill is operated by only 13 employees including two office employees. This may seem like a large staff, but Mascorro has complete confidence in his team. 

The landfill is located at 3002 Old Ballinger Hwy.