December 12, 2024

A Look Back: Solutions for Solid Waste

This article is part of our 130th Anniversary celebration series. It is an excerpt from Continuing the Journey, our book covering Freese and Nichols history from 1995 to 2015.

Landfill construction in Odessa, TX, 1994

In the 1980s and ’90s, solid waste management emerged as an important service area as Texas cities worked to comply with new federal environmental regulations. Freese and Nichols guided the Texas cities through the process as they decided whether to upgrade their landfills or close them. Our firm designed landfills and transfer stations, assisted with permitting, performed groundwater and methane testing and other environmental monitoring, and planned post-closure usage. Additionally, Freese and Nichols worked with state agencies to develop standards for waste disposal.

Because of the more stringent regulations, many cities opted to contract with private waste haulers instead of operating their landfills. As the few others finished their necessary upgrades, work opportunities tapered off through the mid-2000s. By the end of the decade, Freese and Nichols had largely stopped pursuing solid waste projects.

Freese and Nichols brought the City of Snyder, Texas, landfill into compliance with federal environmental regulations in the mid-1990s. Its geosynthetic clay liner design was the first of its kind in Texas and was expected to save the City $3 million over the life of the facility.

In 1996, Silver Creek Materials outside of Fort Worth became the first registered large-scale compost facility in Texas. It is designed to receive 650 tons of municipal solid-waste organics per day.

A version of this article was originally posted in 2019.