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ASSESSMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF WASTE CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
Citation:
Bonaparte, R., D. E. Daniel, AND R. M. Koerner. ASSESSMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF WASTE CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-02/099 (NTIS PB2003-103048), 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
Information
Description:
This broad-based study addressed three categories of issues related to the design,
construction, and performance of waste containment systems used at landfills, surface
impoundments, and waste piles, and in the remediation of contaminated sites. Geosynthetic materials have been used as essential components of waste containment
systems since at least the early 1980=s, and this report represents the first attempt to gauge their performance.
Specifically the report addresses long-term performance:
Geosynthetic Technical Issues
1. protection of geomembranes from puncture using needlepunched nonwoven geotextiles
2. behavior of waves in high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembranes when subjected to overburden stress
3. plastic pipe stress-deformation behavior under high overburden stress
4. service life prediction of geotextiles and geomembranes
Natural Soil Technical Issues
Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) are a relatively new type of liner material, having first
been used in a landfill in 1986. One of the key issues with respect to field performance
of GCLs is their stability on permanent slopes, such as found on landfill final cover
systems. Fourteen test plots, designed to replicate typical final cover systems for solid
waste landfills, were constructed to evaluate the internal and interface shear strength of
GCLs under full-scale field conditions on 2H:1V and 3H:1V slopes. Five different types
of GCLs were evaluated, and performance was observed for over four years. All test
plots were initially stable, but over time, as the bentonite in the GCLs became hydrated,
three slides (all on 2H:1V slopes) that involved the GCLs have occurred.
Field Performance
To evaluate the field performance of compacted clay liners (CCLs), a database of 89
large-scale field hydraulic conductivity tests was assembled and analyzed. A separate
database for 12 soil-bentonite admixed CCLs was also assembled and analyzed. In
addition, case histories on the field performance of CCLs in final cover test sections
were collected and evaluated