Abstract
Vertical barrier walls are often constructed to prevent contamination of ground water and soils by landfill leachate. The leachate water levels in landfills in southern China are generally high. Contaminants in such landfills may migrate through the vertical barrier walls and give rise to environmental problems. Qizishan landfill in Suzhou, China was taken as an example to investigate contaminant migration through the vertical barrier walls. Advection, diffusive and adsorption processes were considered in the analysis. Influences of permeability and depth of the barrier wall on contaminant migration were analyzed. The results show that it will be 13.5 years before breakthrough at 0.1% of the source concentration and 20.5 years before breakthrough at 10% of the source concentration. By and large, the contaminant has not passed through the barrier wall at present, and the contaminated zone is mainly located in the sandy clay layer near the earth dam, which is validated by testing on sampled soils. Hydraulic conductivity and depth of the barrier wall are critical to contaminant migration. Special attention need to be paid on them when building such a barrier wall. If bottom of the barrier wall is keyed into the aquitard and the hydraulic conductivity reaches 10−9 m/s, the time before breakthrough will be long enough to allow stabilization of the landfill. Pollution of the surroundings will be avoided, and therefore the requirement for contaminant control will be attained.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson EI, Mesa E (2006) The effects of vertical barrier walls on the hydraulic control of contaminated groundwater. Adv Water Resour 29:89–98
ECPS-PRC (Editorial Committee of Professional Standards of People’s Republic of China) (2004) Regulations on sanitary landfill of municipal solid waste (CJJ17-2004). China Architecture and Building Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
Foose GJ, Benson CH, Edit TB (1996) Evaluating the effectiveness of landfill liners. In: Proceedings 2nd international conference on environmental geotechnics. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 2l7–221
Harte PT, Konikow LF, Hornberger GZ (2006) Simulation of solute transport across low-permeability barrier walls. J Contam Hydrol 85(3):247–270
Katsumi T, Benson CH, Foose GJ, Kamon M (2001) Performance-based desigh of landfill liners. Eng Geol 60:139–148
Merayyan SM (2001) Evaluation of the unsaturated hydraulic functions of compacted landfill clay liners: impact on the predicted leakage rate. The Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit
Philip LK (2001) An investigation into contaminant transport process through single-phase cement-bentonite slurry walls. Eng Geol 60(1–4):209–221
Qian XD, Koerner RM, Gray DH (2002) Geotechnical aspects of landfill design and construction. Prentice-Hall, Inc, New Jersey, pp 131–179
Rowe RK, Quigley RM, Brooker JR (1995) Clay barrier systems for waste disposal facilities [M]. Chapman & Hall, London
Sangam HP (2001) Performance of HDPE geomembrane liners in landfill applications. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in the University of Western Ontario, Ontario, pp 1–236
VanGulck JF (2003) Biodegradation and clogging in gravel size material. Queen’s University, Kingston, pp 20–28
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50908140). Thanks are owed to Dr. Ulrich Henken-Mellies for enhancing the language.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, WJ., Qiu, QW. Analysis on contaminant migration through vertical barrier walls in a landfill in China. Environ Earth Sci 61, 847–852 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0399-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0399-4