Erosion Control for Solid Waste Disposal Piles

The top surface of most waste disposal piles including uranium mill tailings piles consists of erodible soils capable of vegetative growth. Usually, uranium mill tailings caps have a design life of over 1,000 years or so whereas those of other solid waste piles may have a shorter design life. During this relatively long design period, unpredictable climatic events, such as local intense precipitation and wind blasts, tend to alter the surface configuration of the pile cap. This may lead to concentration of overland flow in randomly formed depressions, gully formation, and potential exposure and transport of tailings with surface runoff. This paper describes the design of a uranium mill tailings pile surface, which consists of berms, lateral flow channels, and swales and minimizes potential for gully formation. Surface runoff from the pile surface is discharged to a downstream channel along a riprap-protected portion of the side slope of the pile.