Unlined Landfill to Fail?

New Orleans’ Gentilly Landfill operated from the 1960s into the 1980s but was closed as environmental concerns and new engineering methods–including the increasing use of geosynthetic containment systems–came about. But the landfill, which is along a canal wall, has been in use again since 2006. It was reopened as a construction and demolition debris landfill after Hurricane Katrina. Now, some fear that the increasing weight of the landfill may weaken the soils around the levee wall and lead to failure of the levee during a storm event.