Landfill Leachate Superfund Treatment Plant Design | Central, AL

LANDFILL LEACHATE TREATMENT PLANT PROBLEM

Remtech Engineers was engaged by the corporate environmental engineering department of a Fortune 100 Energy Corporation to design a groundwater treatment plant for leachate generated from a chemical waste landfill at an Alabama Superfund site to operate under flood conditions.

GROUNDWATER TREATMENT AT SUPERFUND SITE SOLUTION

A waste impoundment was closed by constructing an engineered storage facility. Bentonite slurry walls were constructed and solidification agents were introduced to stabilize wastes. Gas vents, and a High Density Polyethylene Liner was installed to prevent surface water infiltration. A cap was constructed over the landfill.

An estimated three-foot water depth frequently covered the site due to the Corps of Engineers altering spillway elevations at dams located up and downstream. PVC extraction wells were installed in the cap and drilled inside and outside of the slurry wall to intercept and treat leachates from the landfill and direct clean upgradient groundwater around the storage facility.

Submersible pumps were placed in the bottom of each well to produce extraction rates of 50 gpm. North and south galleries were connected to control panels to facilitate operation of single or multiple pumps. The collection gallery initially drained into an existing onsite concrete retention basin.

Remtech evaluated alternative functional designs and prepared detailed plans, specifications, material takeoffs, and contract/bid documents in a 60-day period. This plant was constructed 8-months later. Remtech Engineers also trained plant operations personnel.

GROUNDWATER TREATMENT AT SUPERFUND SITE COST/BENEFITS

Unit operation carbon and stainless steel tanks, quartz lighting, and safety railing were salvaged from the client’s onsite abandoned phenoxy plant. An existing concrete retention basin was used as a foundation and secondary containment structure for the plant. Unique Remtech plant design features including floating weirs, saved the client over $110,000 thousand dollars.