Environmental Monitoring – Soil Moisture

Landfill operator uses automated monitoring of leachate application to assure permit compliance

Background:
A waste handling firm had an issue with leachate from one of the landfills that it operates.  Leachate is essentially water that flows through the waste products located in the landfill and picks up traces of the waste as it passes through.  Since the water is contaminated, it has to be properly disposed of.  Using a bioremediation process, the waste handling firm implemented a solution to capture the leachate and use it as irrigation water for fast growing trees that require large amounts of water.  The contaminated water is absorbed into the trees and the trees are subsequently harvested for beneficial use.

Problem Statement:

A key component of using this bioremediation technique was to ensure that irrigation with the leachate was not applied during periods where the soil was already saturated.    To assure that this didn't occur, the waste handling firm needed a way to continuously monitor soil moisture conditions.

Solution Description:
MeasureTek provided a series of Campbell Scientific data loggers that monitor soil water profile probes.  The monitoring probes are installed vertically to monitor the moisture along the length of the column to a depth of 1.5 meters.  The system logs data on 15 minute, hourly and daily intervals, all of which is stored for later analysis and reporting purposes.  Data is accessed and displayed via the local computer.

Result:
Installed in 2003, the system has now been in use for over 8 years to provide data to verify that irrigation using the leachate can take place without adverse effects to the groundwater.  This helps assure that the landfill is properly disposing of its leachate and that it's in compliance with its permits.

For more information on this or other applications, please contact MeasureTek at (541) 924-8988 or visit our website at www.measuretek.com.