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An Evaluation and Analysis of Past Landfill Closures in Puerto Rico as Guidance for Current and Future Closures
Citation:
Carson, D. An Evaluation and Analysis of Past Landfill Closures in Puerto Rico as Guidance for Current and Future Closures. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-12/700, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
The intent of the field observations was to evaluate the presence and condition of monitoring and control structures at the site as well as observe the overall condition of each site. The assessment was intended to be only qualitative in nature. The specific items or conditions that were targeted during the field observation of each site included: (1) Access control (e.g., fencing, locking gate, signage); (2) Cover soils (presence or absence, evidence of erosion, presence or absence of vegetation); (3) Stormwater controls (evidence of ponding, presence or absence of stormwater control infrastructure and condition of such infrastructure); (4) Leachate controls (presence or absence); (5) Nuisance conditions (presence or absence of windblown litter, leachate seeps, odors, and disease vectors); (6) Environmental monitoring and/or control infrastructure (presence or absence of gas monitoring wells, groundwater monitoring wells, and gas collection wells). Each metric was evaluated through sensory observation and documented with photographs.
Description:
The island of Puerto Rico has faced several challenges related to the issue of closed landfills – historically, many municipal landfills in Puerto Rico were not closed properly or abandoned, while others were closed in accordance with applicable rules but have sustained physical changes from climatic and human events that have rendered them less secure. As a result, some closed landfills may pose a risk to human health and the environment presently and in the future. The Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) awarded Task Order 99, “An Evaluation and Analysis of Past Landfill Closures in Puerto Rico as Guidance for Current and Future Closures” under its Scientific, Technical, Research, Engineering, and Modeling Support (STREAMS) contract to RTI International (RTI). RTI subcontracted a portion of the technical work to Innovative Waste Consulting Services, LLC (IWCS). The project was conducted to provide US EPA Region 2, whose jurisdiction includes Puerto Rico, with information to understand the current conditions of a subset of closed landfills and provide Region 2 personnel with recommendations for evaluating future closed landfills in Puerto Rico. A field study was developed to evaluate four municipal solid waste landfills (representing different geographic regions in Puerto Rico) over the course of two field days (with approximately 3 to 4 hours spent at each site) by gathering information through observation and conducting limited field testing to understand the successes and shortcomings of previous closures. The field data were then supplemented by reviewing available historical documentation for each of the four subject sites to understand what, if any, engineering design or controls were put in place at the time the landfill closed.