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Characterization of Infiltration Rates from Landfills: Supporting Groundwater Modeling Efforts

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The purpose of this paper is to review the literature to characterize infiltration rates from landfill liners to support groundwater modeling efforts. The focus of this investigation was on collecting studies that describe the performance of liners ‘as installed’ or ‘as operated’. This document reviews the state of the science and practice on the infiltration rate through compacted clay liner (CCL) for 149 sites and geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) for 1 site. In addition, it reviews the leakage rate through geomembrane (GM) liners and composite liners for 259 sites. For compacted clay liners (CCL), there was limited information on infiltration rates (i.e., only 9 sites reported infiltration rates.), thus, it was difficult to develop a national distribution. The field hydraulic conductivities for natural clay liners range from 1 × 10-9cm s-1to 1 × 10-4cm s-1, with an average of 6.5 × 10-8cm s-1. There was limited information on geosynthetic clay liner. For composite lined and geomembrane systems, the leak detection system flow rates were utilized. The average monthly flow rate for composite liners ranged from 0–32 lphd for geomembrane and GCL systems to 0 to 1410 lphd for geomembrane and CCL systems. The increased infiltration for the geomembrane and CCL system may be attributed to consolidation water from the clay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehigh University, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (author for correspondence

    Horace Moo-Young

  2. Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, U.S.A

    Barnes Johnson

  3. Office of Policy Innovation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, U.S.A

    Ann Johnson

  4. Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A

    David Carson

  5. Tetra Tech, Inc., Lafayette, California, U.S.A

    Christine Lew, Salley Liu & Katherine Hancock

Authors
  1. Horace Moo-Young
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  2. Barnes Johnson
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  3. Ann Johnson
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  7. Katherine Hancock
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Correspondence to Horace Moo-Young.

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Moo-Young, H., Johnson, B., Johnson, A. et al. Characterization of Infiltration Rates from Landfills: Supporting Groundwater Modeling Efforts. Environ Monit Assess 96, 283–311 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000031734.67778.d7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000031734.67778.d7

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