Environmental Monitoring

Landfill operator uses automated monitoring to assure airborne emissions compliance

Background:

trash

The use of landfills to deal with waste materials comes with unavoidable consequences…the creation of liquid and gaseous emissions that have to be treated or disposed of.  The gas created by the decay of landfill waste is composed of 40-60% methane with the remainder being primarily carbon dioxide with varying amounts of water vapor, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen and other chemicals.    In some cases this gas is collected and burned to create power while in other cases the gases are "flared" or burned off.   In order to assure compliance with air quality standards, many landfill operators are required to monitor and model local air quality and air movement.

Problem Statement:
Burn off of waste gases developed from landfills requires a stream of exhaust to be emitted to the atmosphere, the release of which requires a permit.  One of the requirements for emitting this discharge to the atmosphere is that the contents of that gas be carefully monitored for public safety.  This requires that the landfill monitor and model the surrounding air quality and air movement.   To ensure compliance with State air quality standards, a waste company needed an EPA Qualified 10 meter weather station to monitor local air quality and air movement.

radio tower

Solution Description:
MeasureTek specified, installed and continues to maintain an EPA qualified 10 meter weather station for the waste handling company.  The system monitors:

  1. Wind speed and direction at 10 meter elevation
  2. Aspirated air temperature at 2 meter and 10 meter elevations
  3. Air temperature and humidity at 2 meters
  4. Solar radiation
  5. Barometric pressure
  6. Rainfall

The system consists of a Campbell Scientific CR1000 data logger with communications being handled with a wireless cellular internet modem.  This station is somewhat unique in that it is entirely solar powered, including the 2 meter and 10 meter continually operating aspirated air intake fans, and 24 hour internet accessible weather data. 

Result:
The system continually gathers data for monitoring and recordkeeping of site operations, and the data will eventually be used for modeling studies of weather patterns around the site as required by the emissions permit.  The continuously up-to-date weather data makes the system useful in day-to-day operations and routine weather checks.

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