State & Local Government

Landfills & Solid Waste Management Experience

WESTON knows the challenges associated with operating, maintaining, and expanding municipal solid waste operations. Our goal is to achieve regulatory compliance, establish economically feasible solutions to complex regulations and evaluate the economics and overall effect on the community.

Wireless Remote Monitoring System Improves Landfill Operations, Seminole Road Landfill, DeKalb County, GA. DeKalb County Sanitation Division manages over 750,000 tons of waste per year, including municipal sold waste, yard debris, and construction and demolition waste. Seminole Road Landfill, the county’s solid waste disposal facility, includes groundwater and methane monitoring systems and an active landfill gas collection and control system (GCCS). To maintain continuous GCCS operations and monitor the control systems, several flare station mechanical and electrical systems parameters are checked and recorded. WESTON installed a wireless remote monitoring system to upgrade the existing flare station’s capabilities and shutdown/prevention procedures. This system provides real-time monitoring, data capture, and alarm notification of 23 critical operational parameters.

Today, flare station data are displayed and stored on a secure, password-protected Web site in real time. During a shutdown, the system identifies the cause and notifies flare operators instantly via e-mail and cell phone text messaging. The enhanced system also provides instant notification when any of the measured parameters deviate outside a normal or alarm value, preventing shutdowns. This system has reduced the potential for surface emissions releases, off-site migration of methane, and groundwater contamination. It has drastically reduced the flare station’s operation and maintenance costs, while increasing environmental regulatory compliance. The Seminole Road Landfill Flare Station now operates more consistently, with increased reliability and decreased shutdowns by nearly 300%.

Strategic Energy Consulting and Facility Management & Planning, Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) Resource Recovery Facility, Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority (GDRRA), Detroit, MI. Our client is a municipal solid waste (MSW) authority that administers the performance of a 3,000 ton-per-day (tpd) RDF preparation, and a steam and electrical power cogeneration resource recovery facility. WESTON has been the Authority’s engineering consulting firm since the facility’s inception in 1984. WESTON personnel have performed monitoring and technical evaluation of the construction, startup, acceptance testing, and operation of the facility. Presently, WESTON personnel are involved in most aspects of the Authority’s daily mission through the use of onsite technical staff, including the monitoring of MSW loads, overall system performance, and the disposal of the incinerator ash into an exclusive ash monocell located 35 miles southwest of the facility. WESTON is also responsible for certification of contractor invoices; providing technical support at ambient air monitoring stations; preparing daily, weekly, and monthly reports covering performance indicators and contractual guarantees; and is involved in household hazardous waste collection and facility odor control programs.

• Strategic Planning - WESTON is aiding the Authority by managing the evaluation of options and alternatives, including facility useful life extensions, contractual issues concerning the City’s MSW program, and cost-benefit analysis for the City’s overall operations; conducting the analysis and research; and providing periodic briefing information to the Mayor and City Council as it develops a long-range MSW plan that maximizes benefit to the City.

• Energy Task Force – The City of Detroit’s Energy Task Force is chaired by the GDRRA Director. WESTON is providing support to the Energy Task Force, comprised of the GDRRA Director, and Directors of Public Works, Water and Sewerage, Public Lighting, Environmental Affairs, the Mayor’s office, and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, through development of a baseline for current energy usage and expenditures, development of commodity procurement strategies, and focused energy management consulting.

Construction of a Landfill Cap, City of Pocomac, Worcester County, MD. WESTON’s Construction team constructed a 14-acre RCRA landfill cap at the Pocomac City facility located in Worcester County, Maryland. Along with the typical scope of work involved in landfill cap construction – establishing and maintaining required sediment and erosion controls, establishing proper subgrade slopes, installing landfill gas vent wells and stone trenches, installing geosynthetic gas vent/liner/drainage layers, and final cover soils – some unique tasks completed by the WESTON crew that resulted in significant costs savings included relocation/consolidation of waste material found unexpectedly outside the reported limits of waste, constructing wetland mitigation areas, and obtaining all necessary permits and licenses to establish and operate a nearby soil borrow source.  The work was completed between October 2003 and May 2004.

Environmental Investigation, Former Troy Mills Landfill Site, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Troy, NH. WESTON was selected to conduct a phased environmental investigation at this inactive industrial landfill site. WESTON was directed to focus the investigation on determining the extent, fate, and transport of light, non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) being released from buried drums contained in the landfill. WESTON was also directed to evaluate methods to mitigate migration of LNAPL to surface waters located adjacent to the site. In addition, WESTON was requested to perform oversight of test pitting activities being performed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region I, Emergency Response Branch test pitting activities at the site and their contractor, EPA Region I Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START).

The evaluation included a complete hydrogeologic review to verify the direction of groundwater flow and the extent of LNAPL. WESTON generated a revised groundwater flow map, and performed oversight of EPA Region I, Emergency Response Branch test pitting activities. WESTON’s evaluation of hydrogeologic data discovered LNAPL in two onsite wells where it had not previously been observed, allowing NH DES to better assess the risk posed by the release of LNAPL. The revised groundwater flow map identified an area adjacent to the buried drum area with less than optimal hydraulic control and insufficient LNAPL monitoring points that has been recommended for further investigative activities.

Landfill Gas Control System Services, Macon-Walker Swamp Road Landfill, Macon, GA. WESTON provided work under a contract with the City of Macon, Georgia for the assessment of the existing LFG control system and operation of the system at the Macon-Walker Swamp Road Landfill. This 120-acre facility has been operating since the 1950s as a disposal site for the City of Macon’s waste. The unlined facility continues to operate under a permit issued by Georgia EPD. The LFG system currently consists of 85 extraction wells. LFG removed from the landfill is used to fire the brick kilns of an off-site, end-user adjacent to the landfill. WESTON evaluated the existing LFG collection system and made recommendations for improvement to the system to allow for continuous system operation and ensure regulatory compliance with the Georgia EPD’s solid waste management regulation and EPA’s codified MSW landfill emission regulations. WESTON continues to provide landfill emission gas system operation and maintenance, surface emissions monitoring, and annual compliance reporting. The scope of services included:

• Landfill GCCS evaluation and design system improvements

• Landfill GCCS monitoring and calibration

• Landfill gas collection and control system design

Click here for more information on WESTON's Landfill & Solid Waste services