Municipal Solid Waste

Municipal Solid Waste

• A community generates 225 tons of municipal solid waste per year.
  • What is the actual average annual production of methane that a community should expect from the landfill operation in BTU per year? (For Part A, show all of your work.)
  • What are the factors, laws, or standards that can limit the amount of methane production in the landfill? (Your total response for Part B should be at least 200 words.)
• Use the treatment options in Table 8-11 (p. 357) that lists biological and physical/chemical operations for treating leachate generated from a landfill to answer the following questions. (Your total response for all parts of this question should be at least 300 words.)
  • Recommend a treatment train that uses one biological and one physical chemical operation. Provide your reason for making this recommendation.
  • In what order would you put these units? Describe your reasoning for your prescribed order.
  • If your proposed treatment scheme does not meet the prescribed permit discharge limits for the facility, what post-treatment technology would you recommend to ensure that discharge limits are met. Provide your reasons for your technology selection.
  • For each part of the question, be sure to explain what law and standards factor into your recommendation or reasoning.
• Leachate and Groundwater Monitoring
  • Why are landfills designed to have a leachate head of 12 inches on the liner? If the leachate head had the potential to build to 24 inches, what is a simple design technique that could relieve the hydraulic pressure on the liner?
  • What are the monitoring requirements for an operational landfill? Create a table to describe what each parameter measures and why knowing this is important.
  • What are the post-closure monitoring requirements? Create a table to describe what each parameter measures and why knowing this is important? (Your total response for all parts of this question should be at least 200 words.)
• Assume that a landfill is proposed for a location that is located east of a forest, west of a national park, and north of a major river.
  • What are some political factors that go into deciding if this is an acceptable location for a new regional landfill?
  • What engineering modifications could you recommend that would make this site acceptable to the city council?
  • If the landfill location is rejected, what recommendations would you propose for managing the municipal solid waste for the community? (Your total response for all parts of this question should be at least 200 words.)