A local county landfill has been recognized by a state association for coming up with a ground cover plan that uses fungus instead of traditional grass. The change paid off, and the staff at the Transylvania County landfill received an Excellence in Innovation Award from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners for their efforts.
Located in the western part of Transylvania County, the landfill is literally on top of a mountain. According to the National Weather Service, this area of Transylvania County receives between 80-100 inches of rain every year. This much rain doesn’t help Solid Waste Director Kenn Webb control erosion on the freshly covered slopes of trash. The rain isn’t his only problem. “The soil typically tends to be rocky in nature,” Webb said, gesturing toward a rutted slope dotted with weeds growing here and there. “Over time, you get a lot of wash out of the nutrients from the soil, so it is very difficult to do the required covering with grass,” Webb said.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires closed off parts of a landfill to be covered with grass for sediment control and erosion protection. “When we hydroseed, which basically means we are applying a seed mixture with nitrogen fertilizers, that material tends to wash out in one growing season to where that grass will not return,” Webb said.
The rocky soil simply doesn’t have enough nutrients to hold the grass and the grass has to be replanted every year. “That was not economically practical,” Webb said. “So we were looking for another solution.” Webb approached Leif Olson, an expert in applied mycology (the study of fungi) and soil biology. Olson suggested using fungi spores mixed in mulch to cover the barren slopes.
“I came in already thinking of how we could use fungi and wood waste. But, when I saw they had this giant pile of wood debris, things started to click,” Olson said as he mixed a pile of wood chips and fungi spores in his back yard. “Here is a resource that is already here,” Olson said. “It could also help solve the erosion problem.”