Using Ex-Landfill to Be Studied

Weeds and trash currently dot the landscape of a 25-acre parcel in West Anaheim commonly known as Sinkin’ Lincoln. A county landfill for construction debris and household waste in the 1950s, the property has had nothing on it since 1985, when a mobile home park was moved because of health and safety concerns.

But the city, residents and the property’s owners have high hopes for Sinkin’ Lincoln, mostly due to a $200,000 Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Grant. The money will fund the city’s assessments of the land’s contamination and stability. The study is expected to be completed in June, and the results should help determine just what can be done with the land.

“It’s a terrible sight,” said Esther Wallace, chairwoman of WAND, the West Anaheim Neighborhood Development Council. Large areas have sunk about 10 feet because of waste decomposition. Mattresses, shopping carts and clothing lie hidden from view, evidence of a temporary refuge for homeless people, said police. And all of it is within a few feet of the busy intersection of Beach Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue.

City staff applied for the grant after WAND members prodded them to help revitalize West Anaheim. The area has struggled in recent years to rise above urban blight, and residents see Sinkin’ Lincoln’s renewal as key to turning the neighborhood around.

“It’s an exciting project,” said Phillip Schwartze, the planner and real estate agent for Lincoln and Beach Associates, owner of 18 of the 25 acres since 1993. Schwartze said his clients would like to build on the land but have been held up, partially because of contamination and geological issues, specifically the sinking ground.

The city’s study will most likely focus on the prevalence of methane and other gases in the soil--byproducts of decomposition--and the landfill’s pit boundaries, said Jim Hanson, former project manager for Anaheim’s grant at the EPA.

Hanson said methane gas can cause explosions. However, he said, Sinkin’ Lincoln probably won’t have a lot of methane because the landfill closed more than 40 years ago. Most of the decomposition should have occurred already. But the possibility of further ground movement could pose a bigger problem for developers, he said.

The city’s staff said that if they have no other options, they will try to build a park. But ideally, they’d like to satisfy West Anaheim residents who want a neighborhood shopping center.

A shopping center at that location could help revitalize West Anaheim by attracting other businesses, said WAND’s Wallace.

“We’re anxiously waiting for that report,” she said. “We’ve lived with this for 40 years.”

Judy Silber can be reached at (714) 966-5988.