Little Landfills at Desert View Elementary

As part of our community outreach, Camino Real landfill constantly invites schools and other groups to tour the landfill and visit the power plant and recycling center on site.  We think it’s critical that our communities know what happens to their trash.

But, we were surprised when one teacher, Gloria Avalos at Desert View Elementary, invited us to tour the "little landfills" her 3rd grade students were creating in their own school yard!

 

We met Mrs. Avalos and her students, and were amazed at their landfill science experiment.  Because Camino Real is nearby, Mrs. Avalos decided studying decomposing trash would be a great environmental experiment for her students.

Dr. Juan Carlos Tomas, Camino Real Landfill Manager, gave the students an overview of the landfill that is about a mile from their school:  Camino Real is a 480-acre facility, and is geographically perfectly situated as a permanent waste storage facility, because the nearest ground water is so far below the bottom of the landfill “cells” (on average more than 300 feet below).

 

Another plus: With landfills dry is good, drier is better, and driest is best. Camino Real is situated in a very dry location on the edge of a geomorphic feature known locally as the the West Mesa. This area is part of the North Chihuahuan Desert. Evapotranspiration (plant uptake and evaporation of water) for this area exceeds 75 inches per year. Annual rainfall rarely exceeds ten inches. For this reason and many others, Camino Real is one of the best landfill locations in the country.

 

Because of its size, Camino Real Landfill is set to accept regional trash for the next 40 or 50 years. By that time, the students in Mrs. Avalos' class will be more than 50 years old, and we hope some of them will be working in environmental careers, maybe even at Camino Real Landfill.

 

If your class would like to come tour Camino Real Landfill, please call us!  We would be happy to show you around. You can reach the Camino Real Environmental Center at (505) 589-9440.