As the calendar flips to 2025, the future of the I-95 landfill site in Lorton is still up in the air.
Fairfax County officials are entertaining new projects for development on the 489-acre site, barely a week after a developer’s plans to erect an indoor ski complex skidded to a halt due to financial reasons.
Currently on the table is the construction of a municipal solid waste sorting and/or advanced recycling facility. The county received two unsolicited proposals in 2022 for a facility that could process 650,000 tons of solid waste per year: one from the Ohio-based recycling facility Envision Waste Services and another from Anaergia Services, a Delaware-based subsidary of a Canadian organics processing company.
The proposed facility could divert an estimated 60% of waste from the landfill, according to the Envision Waste Services proposal.
Removing “organics, fiber, and metals” from collected waste, the mixed waste processing facility (MWPF) would occupy 16 acres of a closed portion of the landfill — separate from the site tied to the ski complex project.
“Carbon emissions will be virtually eliminated as our system will remove the organic fraction that would otherwise decompose in the landfill which creates methane and carbon dioxide, both of which are harmful greenhouse gases,” Envision Waste Services wrote.
Anaergia said its project would generate “renewable” natural gas that could be added to the county’s gas grid, providing “carbon negative” fuel and electric power for the transportation network.
The Fairfax County Department of Procurement and Material Management formally notified prospective ski complex developer Alpine-X last month that it was concluding its review of the project with an interim agreement set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
“We share your disappointment that, due to various economic challenges (e.g., estimated construction costs, interest rates, etc.), the project has not moved forward for additional review during the Interim Agreement window,” Lee Ann Pender wrote in the Dec. 18 letter.
The 450,000-square-foot ski complex, dubbed Peak Fairfax, would’ve erected a 1,700-foot indoor ski slope — the largest in the country — as well as a tubing slope, snow field, hotel and other facilities.
The project initially carried a price tag upwards of $400 million, even without any land purchase costs. Still, Alpine-X says financial constraints haven’t forced it to completely abandon its vision.
“We are taking extra time to deal with the dramatic increases in construction cost and interest rates,” Alpine-X CEO John Emery told FFXnow last month. “Since we build projects with a long-term view we make every effort to ensure the future financial success of a project prior to breaking ground.”
Both the ski resort and the recycling facility could be implemented at the I-95 landfill, which spans 489 acres, some of which are still active as a landfill, according to county officials. However, neither project is a guarantee at this point.
The county’s Department of Public Works and Environmental Services is still reviewing the waste processing facility proposals. Other unsolicited bids for reuse projects for the landfill are also being accepted.
Image via Fairfax County
