"This is our very first solar array, and we'd like to have it energized by the end of January at the latest," says Geary, an affable Bostonian who's president of Clean Harbors Environmental Services.
Founded in 1980, the Massachusetts-based firm is among the largest hazardous-waste cleanup companies in the Northern Hemisphere (it's been working on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill). Clean Harbors obtained the 480-acre Logan Township property in 2002, and maintains crews and equipment there for response to regional environmental emergencies.
In the unregulated era before the 1970s, industrial waste of all sorts was transported to, and stored and incinerated at, Rollins. The facility operated in stunning proximity to the Raccoon Creek, the Delaware River, and farms and homes. It closed in 2001 after its owner at the time, a company called Safety-Kleen, went bankrupt.
Although the landfill was sealed before 2002, Clean Harbors has since spent $7.7 million to remediate other environmental damage on the property. The new $7.2 million solar panels will offset the use of commercial power on the site.
"The remediation itself will be powered by renewable energy," Geary says.
Noting that the township has installed solar panels on the municipal building, Logan Mayor Frank Minor is enthusiastic.
"It's wonderful," says the mayor, who hopes the project will generate jobs as well as electricity.
Surplus power could well be an incentive for adjacent development, Geary says. "We can also sell it back" to the utility grid, he adds.
"Turning brown into green," agreed Robert W. Bucknam Jr., the Haddonfield lawyer who helped Clean Harbors obtain the approvals required for the project.
