Expert: Greg - 11/30/2007

Question
Hi I'll try to keep it short.Location is Central NJ. We are a small R/C model airplane club that fly in a land fill. We were faced with a problem while attempting to set up a runway to fly back in 2001 For reasons I can't answer,we dumped tons of wood chips in a hollow to level out the area.(we now know we shouldn't have) The area being about 400x600 and about 6 to 8 feet deep of chips mostly pine and oak tree.On top of this we then capped it off with topsoil and sod.We do have nice grass growing in  an area about 400x175 the rest of the area has growth weed/grass. As you might have already guessed its beginning to rot away, but not the whole area. I asumming bcause we capped off the chip to air we have delayed the process for 7 years.If you dig in the chips you will find that most of them look like they did 7 years ago. Other area are rotted.Funds for us are quite tight. We are now looking to fix this problem slowly. Can you point us in the right direction? We certainly don't want to loose the ability to continue to fly. My thoughts go along the way of speeding up the composting in areas no long being use, And then reusing the composted material as fill? Any help would be great and remember we are in the complete blind here don't assume we know how to do this!
thanks steve d

Answer
Hello Steve

WOW  400x600 and 6-8 ft deep?  This is a HUGE area!

Since I assume that the Chips were either free or of low cost, it really was a good idea at the time.

I will try and not bore you with what is happening right now, except to tell you that with 6-8 foot deep of Wood Chips, we would probably both be dead and gone before this rots away altogether.

The Idea of bringing in a Bobcat and digging, moving, turning seems rather time consuming and costly if you were to hire this job out. On top of that, the chips will continue to rot away, and the job would have to be repeated somewhere again.

I would go with the mindset of, not speeding up the Decomposition process, and Cocoon the whole thing.

As the area sinks, just bring in fill dirt, and level it
off. This may have to be repeated, as a matter of fact, you can guarantee it as the Years go by, but it would be much less expensive than digging the whole area up, mixing in Fill Dirt, adding Nitrogen to speed up the Decomposition, Back filling, and knowing that as the Wood rots, its just going to sink again.

Good quality top soil, in the quantity you would need, should run about 35 bucks a yard delivered. Level the area out and Tamp it down solid with a Power Roller,then plant grass seed. As areas start to sink again, repeat.

Other than removing the Wood Chips altogether, I see no other
cost effective way of doing this, and I assume you want grass to grow in this area, as opposed to bringing in Pea Gravel or Stone.

If any of my assumptions are wrong here, don't hesitate to e-mail me back, and we could work out a different plan.

The Best of Luck
   Greg