The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS, is spending about $656,000 to repair its landfill gas collection system at John Garland Park in KCK, according to the UG’s solid waste office. The Unified Government says over time, its gas collection system at the park has degraded and gas has naturally migrated underground beyond the collection system’s boundaries.
Residents will pay to replace, repair and add more pipes to the system through their monthly user fee for trash and recycling collection. “This system uses suction to pull gas to a central location for treatment and works to reduce risk to anyone near the landfill,” a Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokesperson said.
The park, considered a brownfield site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), formerly operated as Kansas City Sanitary Landfill from 1972 to 1974. “There’s all sorts of waste below John Garland Park — couches, papers and all sorts of stuff,” Reno said. “It was a model landfill that the EPA and Unified Government and (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) got together and developed.”