Tips for Handling Landfill Leachate
The rising costs of leachate treatment and public concern about hazardous liquids being introduced into the environment has caused landfill owners to seek the best ways to manage leachate. Of course, leachate as we know and as the public refers to is any liquid material that drains from land or stockpiled material. We’ve amassed five suggestions for reducing the amount of leachate your landfill creates.
- Better grading: If your landfill is full of slopes that can increase run-off then this is counterproductive to leachate reduction. Create landfill plateaus that maximize run-off of leachate materials towards ditches. Additionally, try using soil that has low permeability in areas where you know that trash will rest for some time.
- Use caps and covers: Geomembrane caps and covers over waste piles that will not be added to for some time is a good way to eliminate rainwater percolation into landfills.
- Better leachate treatment: Of course leachate can never be completely eliminated in landfills. It is simply a cost of doing business when it comes to landfills. However, by modifying the pH in leachate its concentration can be reduced that it is not as hazardous. Activated sludge is another method of substantially reducing dissolved organic content. Both methods involve a commitment on the part of the landfill owner.
- Roads: Create roads in order to minimize erosion during severe storms. These roads will help safely guide any run-off that occurs.
- Landfill management software: Leachate control starts at the top with management. Our software helps you to make important decisions regarding your landfill and that could affect the public.
- Plantings: Plant sod or seeding around slopes. This will help to prevent soil erosion that can also act as a vehicle propelling dangerous, untreated liquids towards lakes and streams.
Finally, leachate generated from landfills is becoming a great threat to the surrounding environment and with public concern growing over the high concentrations of toxic substances that this can introduce into bodies of surface water, we must also be concerned. Our landfill GPS systems help people whose job it is to move earth and waste do so with greater safety, efficiency and economy. We specialize in GPS construction, earthmoving, grading and accuracy and can help your business become a responsible corporate citizen.
