Greenville County's Twin Chimneys Landfill is located on 1,155 acres at 11075 Augusta Road in southern Greenville County. The landfill is a state of the art Subtitle D landfill designed to handle municipal solid waste generated in and around the county.

In addition to the garbage disposal areas of the landfill, Twin Chimneys has a Residential Household Waste and Recycling Facility for use by citizens wanting to dispose of their own household waste.

Commercial garbage trucks are routed directly to the disposal area after passing over a scale that records the trucks tonnage so that appropriate fees may be charged. All commercial haulers and businesses are assessed a fee to dispose of waste at the landfill.

The Twin Chimneys landfill is constructed in accordance with the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in order to minimize impacts to groundwater and the surrounding environment through the escape of leachate, methane gas, and the waste itself.

The landfill is comprised of seven areas suitable for disposal operations. We refer to these areas as Units. The units vary in size and shape due to the application of technical requirements like setbacks from wetlands and property lines, utilities and road infrastructure. Within each of these units smaller cells are constructed as the fill sequence progresses. The liner system within each new cell we construct is connected to the previous cell until floor of the entire unit is protected by the liner system.

As each Unit reaches design capacity, we discontinue waste acceptance. At this point we begin post closure activities. This includes installation of a liner system similar to the liner applied to the floor of the Unit. When complete, the floor and the top of the landfill will be connected, enclosing the entire Unit with a watertight liner system.

A cross section of the Twin Chimneys Landfill shows the clay liner, geosynthetic liner, and leachate collection pipes that are in-place to reduce impacts to the groundwater as the waste begins to decompose.

The leachate collected in these pipes is pumped to holding tanks where it is initially treated by aeration then it is pumped into tankers and hauled to Renewable Water Resources (ReWa) for final treatment.

At the end of each day the waste is covered with a layer of soil or an approved alternate daily cover to prevent trash from blowing away, control odors, and prevent animals (such as birds, dogs, and rodents) from scavenging in the waste.

As layers of waste are placed within the landfill footprint methane pipes are installed to vent the gas that builds up in the decomposing waste. At the Enoree Landfill, which closed in early 2007, these pipes are being connected together so that the methane gas can be captured and sold for power generation.

When the landfill has reached its capacity a cap will be placed over the cells to prevent rainwater from percolating into the decomposing waste.

Groundwater monitoring wells are installed around the perimeter of the landfill prior to the acceptance of any waste. Groundwater samples are routinely collected from these wells and analyzed to monitor the groundwater quality. In accordance with RCRA regulations for Subtitle D landfills, the groundwater quality will continue to be monitored through the collection of samples from these wells throughout the active life of the landfill and for 30 years after the landfill has reached capacity and been closed.