York County Solid Waste Authority is considering reusing the York County Sanitary Landfill in Hopewell Township. According to the EPA, the waste authority began operating a 300-acre landfill in Hopewell Township in 1974. In 1982, the authority discovered contaminants in the groundwater due to an unlined 135-acre area of the landfill.
That portion has been closed since 1985 and was placed on the National Priorities List Superfund in 1987. The Superfund program is used to investigate and clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances. After years of cleanup efforts, the landfill was removed from the Superfund list in 2005.
The waste authority and Hopewell Township worked together to transform the former landfill into a 200-acre recreation facility, a wildlife habitat, personnel offices and a solar energy array that powers the site’s groundwater cleanup efforts. The 2-acre solar farm consists of 806-panels that generate roughly 300,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, providing up to 90 percent of the electrical demand at the site, according to the EPA.