Solid Waste Engineering & Compliance Services: Coffey County Sanitary Landfill
Kansas
Location
Kyle Kukuk
Contact
Service Lines
Project Summary
Blackstone provides environmental compliance and engineering services to the Coffey County Sanitary Landfill (CCSL). The CCSL is an approximate 38-acre municipal solid waste landfill (MSW) located near Burlington, Kansas, and operated by Coffey County.
Services Provided
Blackstone assists the landfill with groundwater monitoring and also provides engineering design services, construction quality assurance for liner and cap construction, and test pad permeability (Boutwell) testing.
Blackstone also prepared a design report for a proposed phytoremediation pilot test plot unit. The pilot test plot was designed to evaluate using CCSL leachate for beneficial use as an irrigation source on native, water-loving trees and grasses, which will utilize the evapotranspiration process to naturally treat the landfill leachate. The pilot test plot goal is to determine the viability of using diluted leachate as an irrigation source and to evaluate the interaction between the native vegetation and the leachate to ultimately determine maximum loading rates for a larger, permanent phytoremediation unit. Leachate management at the CCSL currently consists of onsite leachate storage tanks and a shallow leachate evaporation pond on the intermediate cover of the active landfill. Once maximum storage in the tanks and evaporation pond has been reached, leachate is transported to a wastewater treatment plant.
Phytoremediation treatment of leachate and wastewater is a relatively new technology that several landfills around the country have implemented for leachate management. The main goal of phytoremediation is to use vegetation and their root systems to reduce and stabilize the leachate generated. A pilot test plot of approximately 0.67-acres will be constructed at the CCSL to test and monitor the effectiveness of willows, cottonwoods, native grasses, and soils to manage leachate on site. The design report prepared by Blackstone detailed the pilot test plot design, the plant species used for phytoremediation, leachate application rates, and the soil mix for planting