Estimating the Hydraulic Conductivity of Landfilled Municipal Solid Waste Using the Borehole Permeameter Test
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper reports the in situ field saturated hydraulic conductivity of municipal solid waste at a landfill in Florida. The saturated hydraulic conductivity was estimated at 23 locations using the borehole permeameter test, a method commonly used for determination of the of unsaturated soil. The of the landfilled waste was found to range from to . The was found to be on the lower end of the range of reported by previous studies. The hydraulic conductivity of the waste decreased with depth, the likely result of greater overburden pressures associated with deep locations of the landfill. Permeability values of the landfilled waste calculated based on were compared with permeability values estimated using air as the fluid (air permeability, ). Values of were found to be approximately three orders of magnitude greater than those of . The lower permeability of the waste to water was primarily attributed to entrapped gas. Other factors such as potential clogging of media and short-circuiting of air along the well may also have contributed to the differences in and .
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Acknowledgments
The Florida Bioreactor Demonstration Project was funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management. The writers wish to acknowledge the support of the project sponsors, the New River Solid Waste Association, and the site engineers Jones, Edmunds and Associates. Sreeram Jonnalagadda and William Matthew Farfour provided valuable assistance in the collection of data presented in this paper.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 6 • June 2006
Pages: 645 - 652
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 18, 2005
Accepted: Sep 14, 2005
Published online: Jun 1, 2006
Published in print: Jun 2006
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