British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium

Land reclamation at municipal landfill sites Hansen, Bryony; Sperling, Tony, 1960-

Abstract

The recent trend towards closure and reclamation of municipal landfills, and in particular, smaller rural sites, is driven by economic and regulatory requirements. Improved economies of scale associated with larger operations encourage closure of small landfills and centralization of landfilling operations into fewer, larger sites. In addition, the 1993 Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks "Landfill Criteria for Municipal Solid Waste" has resulted in closure of smaller problem sites rather than the more expensive alternative of upgrading the facilities to meet the new criteria. Closure of municipal landfills presents a formidable reclamation challenge involving multiple objectives including 1) isolating refuse, 2) minimizing leachate production, 3) preventing erosion, 4) collecting and disposing landfill leachate and landfill gas, 5) returning the land to its original productive state, particularly on lands within the Agricultural Land Reserve, 6) issues associated with application of biosolids as a topsoil amendment and, 7) closure and post closure environmental monitoring to continually ensure that landfill impact on its surroundings are kept at acceptable levels until stabilization or, for approximately 25 years post closure. This paper draws on Sperling Hansen Associates' (SHA's) recent experience in the design of closure systems for the Hartland Landfill, located 30 km north of Victoria, and the Savona Landfill, located 40 km east of Kamloops, the Squamish Landfill and the Whistler Landfill. To illustrate the key issues associated with implementing practical closure and reclamation of landfills in British Columbia, a detailed case history of the Savona Landfill Closure is presented.

Item Citations and Data

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International