Indirect measurements of field-scale hydraulic conductivity of waste from two landfill sites

Management and prediction of the movement and distribution of fluids in large landfills is important for various reasons. Bioreactor landfill technology shows promise, but in arid or semi-arid regions, the natural content of landfilled waste may be low, thus requiring addition of significant volumes of water. In more humid locations, landfills can become saturated, flooding gas collection systems and causing sideslope leachate seeps or other undesirable occurrences.This paper compares results from two different approaches to monitoring water in waste. At the Brock West Landfill in eastern Canada, positive pore pressures were measured at various depths in saturated waste. The downward seepage flux through the waste is known, thus the vertical saturated hydraulic conductivity of the waste at this landfill was determined to be 3 × 10−7 cm/s.By comparison, the Spadina Landfill in western Canada is predominantly unsaturated. The infiltration of moisture into the waste was measured using moisture sensors installed in boreholes which determined arrival time for moisture fronts resulting from major precipitation events as well as longer-term change in moisture content resulting from unsaturated drainage during winter when frozen ground prevented infiltration. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity calculated from these data ranged from approximately 10−6 cm/s for the slow winter drainage in the absence of significant recharge to 10−2 cm/s or higher for shallow waste subject to high infiltration through apparent preferential pathways.These two very different approaches to field-scale measurements of vertical hydraulic conductivity provide insight into the nature of fluid movement in saturated and unsaturated waste masses. It is suggested that the principles of unsaturated seepage apply reasonably well for landfilled waste and that the hydraulic behavior of waste is profoundly influenced by the nature and size of voids and by the degree of saturation prevailing in the landfill.

► The vertical hydraulic conductivity of waste was determined at two landfills.
► For saturated waste, measured pore pressures and leachate flux yielded K = 3 × 10−7 cm/s.
► For unsaturated conditions, buried sensors detected the advance of moisture fronts.
► During infiltration through large pores, the apparent K value was 10−3–10−2 cm/s.
► When infiltration was prevented, drainage of smaller pores suggested K = 10−6 cm/s.