Fresno Sanitary Landfill - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

This is a unique property included in the National Register of Historic Places. While most preservationists in this area are interested in buildings and homes of people this was a local engineering feat that changed the way garbage was treated nationwide. The Landfill was initially named a National Historic Landmark until the Secretary of Interior found out the property was an EPA Superfund site. Yes! The landfill is on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites. The city has been paying millions of dollars to clean the landfill. It remains included in the National Register! Despite the toxic nature of the landfill the city of Fresno had the foresight to adaptively reuse the landfill as a city park, and the Fresno Regional Sports Complex was born. The landfill is to be gradually included in the park as the area of concern are cleared by the EPA.

From the National Register/National Historic Landmark nomination -
"The Fresno Sanitary Landfill was opened in 1937 and closed in 1987. It is the oldest "true" sanitary landfill in the United States, and the oldest compartmentalized municipal landfill in the western United States, holding the service record of more than 50 years of continuous operation. It is the first landfill to employ the trench method of disposal and the first to utilize compaction. At the Fresno site, the layering of refuse and dirt in trenches, compacting the dirt and refuse, and then covering the filled areas daily to minimize rodent and debris problems represented the technique adopted by the builders of modern sanitary landfills, and thus represented a "true" sanitary landfill, not simply a modification on older land-dumping methods." Check this site for more info Historic Fresno Architecture

Street address: 1707 W. Jensen Ave. Fresno, CA USA 93706 County / Borough / Parish: Fresno Year listed: 2001 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Engineering Periods of significance: 1937-1987 Historic function: Sanitary Landfill Current function: Included in the Fresno Regional Sports Complex Privately owned?: no Hours of operation: From: 7:00 AM To: 8:00 PM Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   08/23/2010 fresgo visited it