Planning for closure of the Logan City/Cache County landfill and surrounding landscape

Planning for landfill closure requires in-depth analysis into many operational, environmental, and social factors. Ideally, the planning process should resolve as many of the technical, social, and aesthetic requirements as possible by systematically addressing the various elements that influence the final design. This research identified the significant issues related to planning for the end use of the current Logan landfill (approximately 100 acres) after it reaches capacity in 18--20 years and the associated lagoons (460 acres) and wetlands (396 acres). The current closure plan calls for simply 11 recontouring the landfill to stabilize the slopes, then revegetating. The location of the site has serious implications for environmental impact yet offers positive opportunities for consideration of alternative end uses.This research includes a professional visual resource analysis of the landfill for specific future time periods. The study follows generally accepted procedures to complete a visual analysis of the current proposed landfill closure plan and selected potential alternative end uses. Based on the research analysis and results reported here, the following conclusions are supported: (1) The Logan landfill will reach full capacity in less than 20 years. (2) There is a need to plan for the appropriate end use of this facility. (3) There is an excellent landfill planning process appropriate to this need. (4) Several alternative end uses have been implemented on landfills nationally and internationally---several of these are suitable for the Logan landfill. (5) There is a visually preferable alternative (the Environmental Education Center, or EEC) to the currently planned end use. (6) The EEC, with associated facilities (i.e. sewage lagoons, effluent polishing wetland, constructed and proposed mitigation wetlands, Cutler reservoir), presents a highly desirable alternative to the currently planned end use.