The Wildwood Landfill Moves Forward Toward Public Space

It’s been quite some time since the public has been back in the old Wildwood Landfill.

Located on the back bays of Wildwood on Spicer Ave there has been a ton of movement on a major project which will bring this part of Wildwood back.

The Wildwood Back Bay Landfill was in operation from the 1930s to the late 1970s, a time when municipalities managed their own waste disposal.

Today, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) mandates the proper closure of inactive historical municipal landfills.

Since the early 2000s, there have been numerous efforts to close the landfill and rejuvenate the Back Bay area of Wildwood.

Plans have included mixed-use development, solar farm installation, and simply closing the landfill without further development.

However, these efforts have faced challenges such as permitting issues and insufficient funding, preventing successful completion.

In February 2022, Appalachia/DAS held a meeting with City officials to assess potential closure options for the landfill, prioritize NJDEP landfill compliance requirements, discuss potential public amenities on the site, and explore funding opportunities that do not burden taxpayers.

This interaction involved City commissioners, administrators, and various department officers.

From this meeting, six conceptual closure/revitalization plans were initially proposed, which were later refined through field investigations, cost-benefit analyses, and consideration of community benefits.

Also See: Wildwoods Construction Update – Late April 2024

Appalachia/DAS conducted additional investigations and property surveys to supplement previous studies and ensure compliance with current regulatory standards.

Through multiple meetings and discussions with various NJDEP departments and agencies such as USACE, the City and Appalachia/DAS developed a landfill closure plan that meets NJDEP requirements.

Furthermore, during the process, the City and Appalachia/DAS discovered that NJDOT was seeking a location for dredge material reuse to facilitate maritime channel maintenance, including two channels within the City of Wildwood limits (Post Creek Basin and Otten’s Harbor).

It was during this time that another project was about to get underway. This was $9.7 million dredging project that was going to widen waterways in the back bays of the Wildwoods.

The way they were able to dredge the bays was captured in our video “Dredging the Wildwoods Back Bays,” which you can watch at the bottom of this page.

Once dredged from the bays, the sand would be collected in giant geo-bags. These bags are made in a way that pushes water out and only leaves the sand.

The city made arrangements with North Wildwood to take 10,000 cubic yards (with a total of 100,000 cubic yards for the project) of this sand and bring it to Wildwood’s landfill to help create a 2 foot high cap.

At its current state, the landfill sits at 15 feet high. With the new capping, we will see that rise up to 17 feet high.

Since the project has gotten underway, much progress has been made in creating this cap.

The sand from the bags have already started to be spread along the top of the landfill, all of which can only be seen at the moment via drone.