Sustainable landfill: the role of fail-safe engineering for landfill aftercare

This research project examined the key issues associated with landfill closure that influences the ability of landfill to be included within a sustainable waste management system. Uncertainty will always surround the precise state of a landfill on its journey towards full stabilisation. While an understanding of the key parameters that govern its progress is important, it is highly desirable to add passive fail-safe systems to landfills so that failure of aftercare systems do not result in large scale environmental impact. A tentative definition of sustainable landfill was developed as part of the previous Equilibrium Study (Hall et al, 2007) albeit that it was framed within the concept of equilibrium status:“Equilibrium status is achieved when emissions of contaminants (liquid or gaseous) are at a rate that allows full natural attenuation of environmental impacts without further intervention or management, beyond a post closure period that is measured in decades rather than centuries. One of the findings of that work was the recognition that a landfill would, as a necessary consequence of its journey towards completion, must enter into a phase of hydraulic equilibrium. Essentially this means that current lined landfill will at some stage need controlled flooding that will form part of the preparation of the Site for formal completion. Once a site has been “delicensed” there will be no mandatory controls on leachate management and many sites will, in any event, fill with water at a rate likely to exceed the rate of leakage from the base. The ultimate consequence of this is that the leachate level will rise and may overtop the lining system resulting in a discharge to surface water as well as ongoing leakage affecting groundwater quality.

 

 

Hochlauf der Wasserstoffwirtschaft
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (8/2024)
Überblick über und Diskussion der Maßnahmen zum beschleunigten Ausbau der Wasserstoffinfrastruktur in Deutschland

Die innerstaatliche Umsetzung des Pariser Klimaschutzübereinkommens - ein Rechtsvergleich
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (8/2024)
Like all public international law treaties, the Paris Climate Accords rely on national law for their implementation. The success of the agreement therefore depends, to a large extent, on the stepstaken or not taken by national governments and legislators as well as on the instruments and mechanisms chosen for this task. Against this background, the present article compares different approaches to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, using court decisions as a means to assess their (legal) effectiveness.

Klimaschutzrecht und Erzeugung erneuerbarer Energien in der Schweiz
© Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (8/2024)
Verschachtelte Gesetzgebung unter politischer Ungewissheit

 

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