The Frank R. Bowerman Landfill is a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

in the western

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside co ...

, in

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

. It opened in 1990. The landfill is located between

Limestone Canyon Regional Park Limestone Canyon Regional Park is a public regional park in southern Orange County, California under the management of OC Parks. The 4,000 acre park is a part of the Irvine Ranch Open Space, a designation of preserved natural landmarks in South ...

and State Route 241. It is one of the largest landfills in California and the ninth largest in the United States. It contains an estimated 31 million tons of waste.

History

It was named after Professor Frank R. Bowerman, former director of environmental engineering programs, at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, and former president of the

American Academy of Environmental Engineers The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) is a society of professional engineers and scientists who have demonstrated special expertise in environmental engineering or science beyond that normally required for professio ...

and the American Academy for Environmental Protection. Bowerman was also a technical consultant to the environmentally themed science fiction film ''

Soylent Green ''Soylent Green'' is a 1973 American Environmental film, ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on t ...

''.

Landfill gas utilization

It is the site for the world's first commercial landfill gas to liquid natural gas project, the Bowerman Landfill Project, constructed by Prometheus Energy, an

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

fuel company based in

Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010. Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. With an an ...

, and Montauk Energy, a capital investment firm.

References

External links

"Resource recovery: An idea whose time has come", Frank Bowerman, in ''Water, Air, & Soil Pollution'' Vol. 4, No. 2, 147–153, 1975
Frank Bowerman at IMDB (consultant on the film "Soylent Green'')
Landfills in California Liquefied natural gas Geography of Orange County, California Santa Ana Mountains 1990 establishments in California {{waste-stub