Earlier in August, ASTM International announced a new standard in support of those who construct and install geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs): ASTM Standard D8204, Standard Practice for Burial and Retrieval of Samples in a Test Pad to Evaluate Installation Effects on Geosynthetic Clay Liners.
The organization cites applications that may benefit most from the new standard include:
- Landfills
- Coal combustion residual storage cells
- Mining operations
- Remediation and environmental protection projects
ASTM STANDARD D8204 FOR GCLS
The new ASTM standard (D8204) focuses on evaluating both best practices and possible negative impacts of installing and constructing with GCLs. ASTM’s Committee D35 on Geosynthetics developed D8204.
“The practices outlined in the standard provide for project-specific parameters and, thus, can provide real project insight into how GCL materials should be installed on a specific site to achieve optimal engineered barrier performance,” says Kent von Maubeuge, a long time technical contributor to ASTM D35 and chair of the subcommittee D35.04 on Geosynthetic Clay Liners. Von Maubeuge also serves as a director of corporate identity and corporate communication and senior product manager for NAUE GmbH & Co. KG.
The ASTM standard, he says, is meant to be used with full-scale GCL installation test pads, not laboratory evaluations.
Insights from using the new standard will help design engineers, facility and project owners, specification writers, certified quality auditors, and geosynthetic installers. Also, manufacturers will benefit from the variations in data from different test pads, which may support the development of future GCL products.
The standard is now available for purchase.
