Landfill design textbook?

[Env_eng_grrl]

The reference materials I plan to use for the PE exam are mostly my college textbooks that I either kept, or bought back, realizing they were useful (statistics). My B.S. program did not include landfill design and I have very little literature on the topic. I have placed an order for the EnvERM. I have seen many people post about the text Hazardous Waste Management by LaGrega. Do either of these texts cover the topic of landfill design sufficiently? What is a good reference textbook for landfill design?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I don't recall seeing too much on landfills, and a lot of it was qualitative.

Don't kill yourself finding a landfill design book. LaGrega plus the ENVRM was enough for me to muddle by.

At least when I was studying, they seemed to love asking solid waste questions about:

1. waste-to-energy facilities - a waste stream is made up of a bunch of stuff, calculate how much energy you can get out of it.

2. municipal waste pickup - In a city of X, with an average household of Y, and a per capita garbage generation rate of Z, etc...how many runs can a 15 CY truck make in an 8 hour shift.

 

[Env_eng_grrl]

I am concerned with landfill design because of some questions in a NCEES sample questions & solutions booklet. Some questions I had trouble fielding had to do with the minimum depth of clay infiltration barrier, the maximum slope for flexible membrane liners, the "witness zone," and EPA recommendations for soil conductivity.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

What's a witness zone?

Sounds like something from a murder scene.

 

[CU07]

I just took the exam in April and agree with VTEnviro. After seeing the questions on the NCEES practice exam I scrambled to find a reference but it slipped through the cracks and I forgot about it. I didn't have any questions like that. I did find Basic Environmental Technology by Nathanson to be helpful on a variety of other topics and they do an okay job covering landfill design, though you won't find anything super specific like RCRA Subtitle C versus Subtitle D. I had quantitative questions like VTEnviro described, and my qualitative questions were more like "which of these substances can be sent to the landfill?" or about incinerators. Clay liner permeability came up too.

 

[VT-Matt]

I also concur w/ the advice above...i dont remember a question like that being asked on the exam, however, being the exam is so broad it doesnt hurt to do a quick google search and find the appropriate 40 CFR that talks about that stuff and print out the applicable section. I remember going through a couple questions like that and was able to find a few nice resources through the EPA website and google. I did not use on the test, but if i was asked what the minimum design thickness was for a clay liner for a subtitle c landfill, or where on this chart is the witness zone, or what is the recommended slope for a landfill, spacing of leachate collection, etc...i was able to pull that information up quickly. I can't really give a great recommendation for a text book that covered those types of questions...i know some of the odd stuff was in salvato and a little bit in lagrega. But to be honest your better off doing a quick google search and printing the 1-2 pages out of the cfr that address this. hope this helps some.

 

[Dleg]

I think Lagrega has some of the basic info. I bought "Handbook of Solid Waste Management" as a study aid when I took the exam, and I don't think I used it much, if at all, during the exam or the practice problems. It's a decent book if you need a solid waste reference, though. I've done a little bit of everything in my career, and I have consulted that book a few times, despite not using it on the exam.