Case study on a contaminated soil landfill in Canada with a focus on geosynthetic materials and electrical leak location

Abstract

Designing a double-lined landfill for contaminated soils certainly presents several challenges. Many design aspects are taken into consideration to comply with local regulations, including thickness of the natural clay layer, minimal slopes for leachate drainage, side slopes for soil stability, global design to lower stress on the geosynthetics, and much more. We will focus on the choice of geosynthetics used for the construction of a cell on a contaminated soil landfill during the summer of 2023, as well as quality control and quality assurance, including electrical leak location. A multi-linear drainage geocomposite was selected to cover each layer of an HDPE geomembrane and a layer of natural sand was also installed. It was not practical to use sand on the secondary geomembrane in the slopes due to stability and damaging risks, therefore the drainage system solely relied on the drainage geocomposite. To carry on with the electrical leak location, a conductive mesh was added to the geocomposite installed in the slopes, allowing 100% of the installed geomembrane to be tested.