Assessing the Performance of Evapotranspiration Covers for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in Northwestern Ohio
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 4
Abstract
Evapotranspiration (ET) covers have gained considerable interest as an alternative to conventional covers for the final closure of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, but often produce higher rates of percolation in regions that receive more than of precipitation. The goal of this project is to design ET covers for MSW landfills in northwestern Ohio (long-term annual rate of precipitation of ) that produce rates of percolation , the rate considered acceptable by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), and promote habitat restoration. To attain this goal, an adequate soil water-storage capacity was provided using dredged sediment amended with organic material. Two plant mixtures were tested to evaluate the performance of ET covers immediately following construction (immature plants seeded onto the soil) and in the future (mature plants transplanted from a restored tall-grass prairie that is more than 10 years old). ET covers were constructed in drainage lysimeters (1.52-m diameter, 1.52-m depth) and watered at a rate of 91.12 to , which included simulated 100-year rain events (11.7 cm over 24 h) in July and October. During the 1-year monitoring period, the ET covers using the mature plant mixture produced considerably less percolation (0.12 to ) than the covers with the immature plant mixture (6.71 to ). Thus far, all ET covers have produced rates of percolation less than the maximum standard by the OEPA, and they will continue to be monitored.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers acknowledge the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (Grant No. UNSPECIFIED2006-38894-03732); the National Science Foundation NSFGK-12 Program to the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center; and the Graduate Fellows in High School STEM Education: An Environmental Science Learning Community at the Land-Lake Ecosystem Interface,” grant UNSPECIFIED#DGE-0742395 for funding; Deanna Bobak for figures; Jordan Rofkar and Lisa (Delp) Taylor for constructive comments; and Ryan Gorr, Paul Lenos, and Rajiv McCoy for field assistance. This is contribution UNSPECIFIED#2010-10 from the Lake Erie Research Center.
References
Abichou, T., Powelson, D., Aitchison, E., Benson, C., and Albright, W. (2005). “Water balances in vegetated lysimeters at a Georgia landfill.” Soil Crop Sci. Soc. Fl., 64, 1–8.
Albrecht, B., and Benson, C. (2001). “Effect of desiccation on compacted natural clays.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 127(1), 67–76.
Albright, W. H., et al. (2004). “Field water balance of landfill final covers.” J. Environ. Qual., 33, 2317–2332.
Albright, W. H., et al. (2006a). “Field performance of a compacted clay landfill final cover at a humid site.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 132(11), 1393–1403.
Albright, W. H., and Benson, C. H. (2002). “Alternative cover assessment program, 2002 annual report.” Publication No. 41182. Division of Hydrological Sciences, Desert Research Institute, University and Community College System of Nevada, and Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison.
Albright, W. H., Benson, C. H., Gee, G. W., Abichou, T., Tyler, S. W., and Rock, S. A. (2006b). “Field performance of three compacted clay landfill covers.” Vadose Zone J., 5(4), 1157–1171.
Barnswell, K. D. (2010). “Determining preliminary components for a landfill evapotransiration cover.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH.
Campbell, C. (2002). “Calibrating ECH2O soil moisture probes.” Application Note DOC-AN00012-00, Decagon Devices, Pullman, WA.
Dwyer, S. F. (2000). “Construction overview of six landfill cover designs.” Sandia Rep. SAND2000-2428, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM.
Ehlers, W., Hamblin, A. P., Tennant, D., and van der Ploeg, R. R. (1991). “Root system parameters determining water uptake of field crops.” Irrig. Sci., 12(3), 115–124.
Green Ribbon Initiative (2004). “The green ribbon initiative.” 〈www.oakopen.org〉 (Oct. 15, 2009).
Gupta, S. C., and Larson, W. E. (1979). “Estimating soil water retention characteristics from particle size distribution, organic matter percent, and bulk density.” Water Resour. Res., 15(6), 1633–1635.
Gurdal, T., Benson, C. H., and Albright, W. H. (2003). “Hydrologic properties of final cover soils from the alternative cover assessment program.” Geo Engineering Rep. No. 03-02, Geo Engineering Program, Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI.
Hanks, R. J. (1974). “Model for predicting plant yield as influenced by water use.” Agronomy J., 66(5), 660–665.
Hausenbuiller, R. L. (1978). Soil science: Principles and practices, W.C. Brown, Dubuque, IA.
Hauser, V. L. (2008). Evapotranspiration covers for landfills and waste sites, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
Hauser, V. L., Gimon, D. M., Bonta, J. V., Howell, T. A., Malone, R. W., and Williams, J. R. (2005). “Models for hydrologic design of evapotranspiration landfill covers.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 39(18), 7226–7233.
Hauser, V. L., Weand, B. L., and Gill, M. D. (2001). “Natural covers for landfills and buried waste.” J. Environ. Eng., 127(9), 768–775.
Nyhan, J. W. (2005). “A seven-year water balance study of an evapotranspiration landfill cover varying in slope for semiarid regions.” Vadose Zone J., 4(3), 466–480.
OEPA. (2003). “Sanitary landfill construction facility construction.” OAC Chapter 3745-27: Solid & Infectious Waste Regulations, Rule # 3745-27-08, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Columbus, OH.
Rock, S. A. (2003). “Vegetative covers for waste containment.” Adv. Biochem. Eng./Biotechnol., 78, 157–170.
Scanlon, B. R., Reedy, R. C., Keese, K. E., and Dwyer, S. F. (2005). “Evaluation of evapotranspirative covers for waste containment in arid and semiarid regions in the southwestern USA.” Vadose Zone J., 4, 55–71.
USEPA. (1993). “Solid waste disposal facility criteria technical manual.” 40 CFR Part 258, Subpart F, Closure and Post-Closure, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5306W), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
USEPA. (2003). “Evapotranspiration landfill cover systems fact sheet.” EPA 542-F-03-015, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati.
Vertessy, R. A., Benyon, R. G., O’Sullivan, S. K., and Gribben, P. R. (1995). “Relationships between stem diameter, sapwood area, leaf area and transpiration in a young mountain ash forest.” Tree Physiol., 15(9), 559–567.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 1, 2010
Accepted: Nov 8, 2010
Published online: Nov 11, 2010
Published in print: Apr 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.