Landfill to Golf Course

Closure of the last active landfill in the New Jersey Meadowlands will provide the open space needed to develop a public golf course. However, the golf course will be prohibited from using potable drinking water for irrigation, and so another source of water must be found to water the course. Rutgers environmental scientists will engineer a treatment train to recover "gray water" from the landfill leachate that can be used to irrigate the greens. At the same time, Rutgers plant biotechnology group will develop turfgrass species that can thrive using this gray water source. By utilizing landfill leachate to water the golf course, we will reduce demand on our drinking water supplies and clean up large quantities of leachate that would be harmful if released into the Meadowlands ecosystem.