You may be seeing a lot of familiar material returning from the Environment Agency of the United Kingdom online. A new website for www.uk.gov has started reissuing reports as it replenishes its online library. Some of these materials feature updated layouts and sections, but some are also older reports (e.g., from 2009’s series) bearing only a new date (the date of reposting to the site). That certainly does not disqualify their value, though. One example is LFE5, “Using Geomembranes in Landfill Engineering.” The 26-page guide was “published” on 24 June 2014, but it also contains older sections and date stamping.
(NOTE: Links to 10 of these guidance documents are contained at the end of this article.)
The return of online availability of these documents is the point to be emphasized.
LFE5 was created with insight from the British Geomembrane Association (BGA) and plenty of technically useful information is found throughout.
These documents provide the rationale for the utilization of a geosynthetic barrier systems (bituminous or polymeric geomembranes, GCLs) and frameworks by which engineers may learn more and make better decisions on the environmental strategies for landfill construction, operation and closure.
As waste industry professionals know, these strategies, while promoted here for environmental protection, are also linked to project life cycle cost savings.
Manufacturing quality control (MQC), construction quality control (CQC), construction quality assurance (CQA) and other critical factors are addressed.
Terminology differences between different standardization bodies and guidance documents are noted.
Other areas of concentration in the document include:
- CQA testing requirements
- Types of geomembranes
- Permeability
- Environmental stress cracking
- Installation
- Design issues (e.g., slope stability, stresses, dessication)
- Subgrades
- Anchor trenches
- Geomembrane welding
- Appendices of MQC requirements
The Environment Agency’s archive is a nice collection of material for engineers to have open access too.
Catch up with other Landfill Engineering (LFE) documents from the UK Environment Agency. All files are PDFs.
- LFE1 – Our Approach to Landfill Engineering (5 pages)
- LFE2 – Cylinder Testing Geomembranes and their Protective Materials (10 pages)
- LFE3 – Using Geosynthetic Clay Liners in Landfill Engineering, Version 3 (24 pages)
- LFE4 – Earthworks on Landfill Sites (66 pages)
- LFE5 – Geomembanes in Landfill Engineering (26 pages)
- LFE6 – Guidance on Using Landfill Cover Materials (29 pages)
- LFE7 – Using Nonwoven Protector Geotextiles in Landfill Engineering (12 pages)
- LFE8 – Geophysical Testing of Geomembranes Used in Landfills (10 pages)
- LFE9 – Compliance Testing Earthworks on Landfill Sites Using Nuclear Density Gauges (7 pages)
- LFE10 – Using Bentonite Enriched Soils in Landfill Engineering (51 pages)
