Back around 2006 a man by the name of Adam Bailey did a pretty in-depth look into the Atari landfill. The site appears to be gone now, but the Wayback Machine looks like it has a full copy.
An excavation should be interesting. There are years of post-Atari dump trash and other material to get through.
In talking to the author back then he said that Atari poured cement on their material in the landfill in 1983, but the landfill was still in use until the until the 90's when the EPA marked the site for hazardous material and shut it down. The landfill was setup before rubber bladders were mandatory and it was leaking into the water table. The protocol for capping a landfill at the time was a thick layer of natural clay with methane vent pipes. After that, at least a foot of dirt is placed on top.
After capping it went on to be used for recreational purposes (ATVs, 4x4s, etc.).
http://web.archive.org/web/20070307122420/http://atari.digit...
An excavation should be interesting. There are years of post-Atari dump trash and other material to get through.
In talking to the author back then he said that Atari poured cement on their material in the landfill in 1983, but the landfill was still in use until the until the 90's when the EPA marked the site for hazardous material and shut it down. The landfill was setup before rubber bladders were mandatory and it was leaking into the water table. The protocol for capping a landfill at the time was a thick layer of natural clay with methane vent pipes. After that, at least a foot of dirt is placed on top.
After capping it went on to be used for recreational purposes (ATVs, 4x4s, etc.).