Problems of the design, construction, and operation of depots with anti-seepage protection for the storage of industrial wastes

Conclusions

1. Existing recommendations on the design, construction, and operation of waste dumps for industrial establishments do not correspond to requirements of nature-preserving legislation; this gives rise to the need for development of a unified regulatory document on the fulfillment of design documentation for waste dumps, which do not require burial and which are subject to subsequent utilization.

2. Scientific-research, design, and other organizations having work experience with industrial establishments storing wastes in dumps should participate in the development of the regulatory documents. In that case, attention should be focused on the development of a procedure for evaluating the effect of dumps on environment as a function of geological, hydrogeological, hydrological, and other conditions for sites at which dumps are located.

3. The reliable shielding of dumps, which guarantees that no surface, soil, and ground water will be polluted by seepage flows and which permits the storage of wastes of various risk categories, is one of the most important conditions for the ecological safety of dumps.

4. The method that we have developed for shielding large horizontal and inclined areas, which utilizes chemical silting of the pores of the underlying soils and ensures a given permeability, makes it possible to build shields with a sufficiently high degree of operational reliability.

5. The reagents used to create the gel-forming solutions do not exert a negative influence on the environment, since the gel is in a bound and water-insoluble form and does not pass from the soil layer being shielded into the underlying water-bearing horizons.