Hydrologic Comparison of Prescriptive and Water Balance Covers
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 7
Abstract
The objective of this study is to compare the hydrology of prescriptive and water balance cover designs for Larimer County Landfill in Colorado via hydrologic models parameterized from laboratory-measured testing of undisturbed and remolded landfill soils. A prescriptive cover is designed to limit percolation into underlying waste via a low-permeability layer, whereas a water balance cover is designed to limit percolation via storing infiltrated precipitation and subsequently releasing the water through evaporation and transpiration. Soil characteristics and engineering properties were determined for an existing prescriptive closure cover and two borrow areas. Hydrologic modeling was completed using commercially available software to predict percolation through the prescriptive and water balance covers. The wettest 10 consecutive years on record with a complete meteorological data set (1992–2001) were selected for the analysis. Predicted percolation through a prescriptive cover was , and evaporation was the main mechanism for removing water from the cover profile. Predicted percolation in the water balance cover models ranged from 4.9 to depending on borrow area soil, cover thickness, and vegetation parameters. Transpiration was the main mechanism for removing water from the water balance cover models.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. All soil testing data and model output data are available upon request. The hydrologic model code is commercially available via GEOSLOPE.
Acknowledgments
The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Larimer County Landfill or Colorado State University. The authors are grateful to Larimer County Landfill for allowing the research to be conducted at their facility.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 3, 2019
Accepted: Jan 14, 2020
Published online: Apr 29, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 29, 2020
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