WHAT IS A LEACHATE COLLECTION SYSTEM?
Leachate is water that gets badly contaminated by contacting wastes. It seeps to the bottom of a landfill and is collected by a system of pipes. The bottom of the landfill is sloped; pipes laid along the bottom capture contaminated water and other fluid (leachate) as they accumulate. The pumped leachate is treated at a wastewater treatment plant (and the solids removed from the leachate during this step are returned to the landfill, or are sent to some other landfill). If leachate collection pipes clog up and leachate remains in the landfill, fluids can build up in the bathtub. The resulting liquid pressure becomes the main force driving waste out the bottom of the landfill when the bottom liner fails. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS WITH LEACHATE COLLECTION SYSTEMS? Leachate collection systems can clog up in less than a decade. They fail in several known ways: • they clog up from silt or mud; • they can clog up because of growth of microorganisms in the pipes; • they can clog up because
