Treatment of landfill leachate-impacted groundwater using cascade aeration and constructed wetlands
- Delta Environmental Consultants, Inc., St. Paul, MN (United States); and others
At an unlined municipal solid waste landfill, heavy metal and toxic organic compounds present in leachate have impacted groundwater, necessitating extraction and treatment of the contaminated groundwater. A remedial design relying on a natural systems engineering approach will take advantage of existing contours (gravity flow) and surroundings (wetlands), and will limit energy inputs and eliminate chemical inputs. Impacted groundwater will be extracted, and aerated via a cascade constructed of polypropylene sheets fabricated into {open_quotes}step{close_quotes} sections and set into a side slope of the landfill. Volatilization of organics and oxidation of iron and heavy metals to insoluble compounds will occur during cascading and will continue within a sedimentation basin where settling of iron precipitates will induce co-settling of heavy metal precipitates. Following the sedimentation basin, a constructed wetland containing both aerobic zones and anaerobic zones will provide additional treatment of remaining solids and heavy metals, before surface discharge. Use of a natural systems approach significantly reduces operating costs compared to a mechanical-aeration, chemical-precipitation system, and is more aesthetically pleasing and suited to the remote locale. The system is under construction and seasonal operation will begin in spring 1996.
- OSTI ID:
- 161785
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950978-; TRN: 95:008718-0028
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 18. international Madison waste conference: where are we going?, Madison, WI (United States), 20-21 Sep 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the eighteenth international Madison waste conference - municipal & industrial waste; PB: 461 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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