Carson Megamall to Rise on Former Landfill

Developers LNR Property and Hopkins Real Estate Group have begun grading and soil preparation on a 168 acre mixed-use development along the 405 freeway in Carson. The project, dubbed the Boulevards at South Bay, will boast retail, dining, entertainment, hospitality, and residences and is set to open in 2011. Projected to be the largest shopping-related development in LA County, the developers seem to know what they've got on their hands... the website seems to be catering more to prospective tenants than to future shoppers.

But the scale of the project is hardly the biggest of their concerns - construction is taking place over a former landfill, a large producer of the dangerous greenhouse gas methane. To help abate risks arising from this location, developers are awaiting approval of a high-tech gas collection system that would be installed on the ground areas of the site where slabs and buildings will not go up. This collection mechanism will filter harmful gases arising from the decomposing waste below, and filter it into safe, breathable air. The site has been controversial and until recently, untouchable, as developers have been turned away from building on the site, which closed to landfill in 1965.

Methane and other gases that arise from decomposing waste are not only unhealthful to inhale, but are commonly explosive. Many land reclamation projects have proven successful in the past, like in the bayfront office developments in Brisbane, California. So in the hands of the EPA and the Department of Toxic Substance Control, I don't doubt the project's potential for safety and good health. But in the 21st century, when space and clean air are both hard to come by, shouldn't we be looking at potential sources for alternative energy, especially in places where they already exist? Methane collection has already been instituted in places like cow farms and arctic glaciers where the gas is prominent. In Southern California, we have many sources for renewable energy but few so close to the urban core. Methane collection from waste would give us an opportunity to attempt to right some of our wrongs, namely our liberal production of and imprudent treatment of waste. Construction is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases and this $800 million, million sf project is no exception. By volunteering to shop on and live over our waste, we are taking a step in the right direction. But unlike Middle East oil, that waste isn't going anywhere, so we need to learn to exploit it even further.