Evaluation of engineered barrier system for hazardous waste disposal - A case study

Abstract

The management of Hazardous Waste (HW) has become a very important and serious matter because of installation of large number of industries across India as a part of globalization and industrialization. If improperly managed, the HW would lead to environment holocaust. Hazardous waste (HW) landfills are provided with either single liner or double liner system to avoid subsurface soil and groundwater contamination due to leachate. These liners are multi layered multi barrier system which typically consists of leachate collection and removal system, compacted clay barrier soil and geosynthetic materials. In the present study, three types of HW landfill configurations are analyzed for hydrological performance using HELP model, to estimate the quantity of leachate generated and estimate the leakage through considered liner systems. Based on the performance, it could be recommended to provide a single liner system with geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL) for the considered HW landfill. The thickness of the compacted clay liner (CCL) is reduced by 60 cm and a GCL of thickness 7 mm is instead provided in the recommended liner system which performs much better than single and double liner system while reducing the quantity of clay soil.