Golf courses spring up on old landfill sites

From the 30m hill of the 12th tee at McCullough's Emerald Golf Links, players negotiate undulating, treeless fairways dotted with sand traps. The casinos of Atlantic City glitter 16km away.

Only the clear flame burning from a 6m smokestack in the middle of the course, and methane well covers that warn against smoking, give golfers a hint that they are standing atop mounds of garbage.

Mounds, that is, that were capped, covered with 60cm of soil, threaded with drainage and gas collection systems, topped with grasses and dotted with 18 flagsticks, fairways and greens.

The holes on the manicured course are softened versions of legendary European holes. Players at McCullough's and a growing number of other layouts have found that a course doesn't have to be trashy just because it's built on garbage.

About 70 of the nation's nearly 16,000 golf courses utilize old landfills, strip mines or industrial "brownfields," a concept that began 40 years ago and is gaining acceptance despite higher development costs, experts said.

Although the trend preserves virgin land, some environmentalists are opposed to the approach, cautioning that blighted land requires constant monitoring and poses unknown health risks.

The trend is not without controversy. A multiyear battle by New York environmental groups failed to halt work on a course being built atop an old landfill in the Bronx.

Of the nearly 250 courses that opened last year, about 10 are on so-called "brownfields," estimated Roy Case, a golf course architect.

"I think they will increase. It's putting land that's useless right now into some sort of public use," said Case, whose Case Golf Co is based in Lake Worth, Florida.

Many courses built on reclaimed land, like McCullough's, are owned by towns and near population centers, so the fees and the course are within reach of the duffer, he said. At McCullough's, a weekday round costs US$60.

Golfer Jim Burr did not realize he and his buddies were playing on a former municipal dump when they teed off at McCullough's.

"I like it a lot. I'm surprised they can get this grass to grow," said Burr, 42, of Bel Air, Maryland.

Although courses built on landfills are monitored, Stephen Lester, a scientist with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice is not convinced course operators are up to the challenge.

"There are a range of volatile chemicals that are typically found in general, household garbage landfills," including benzene and vinyl chloride, which have been linked to cancer in humans, Lester said.

While the Environmental Protection Agency maintains that the small amounts of such agents pose little risk, "we believe that they are toxic in small quantities, especially in combination," Lester said. However, he noted no studies specifically address the results of exposure to such gases.

The most common landfill gas is methane, which is produced from decaying organic material and is not considered toxic, but which can be explosive.

Egg Harbor Township leases the land atop the landfill from its owner, Allied Waste Industries, one of the nation's largest trash hauling and disposal firms. Allied has two full-time workers at McCullough's and is responsible for collecting, treating and monitoring the gas and liquid produced by decomposition in the landfill, township administrator Peter Miller said.

"If you come on the golf course to play, your health is not at risk," Miller said.