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Municipal solid waste landfill failure case study

Conference Paper · September 2018

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 First national conference on geo-environment
3-4 September 2018

Municipal solid waste landfill failure case study

Mohammadreza Harirsaz

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Mohamadreza.harirsaz@gmail.com

Abstract
In recent years, with the advancement and development of cities, waste disposal has become one of the
basic needs of humans, and this is only possible through the design of a Engineering Municipal waste
landfills. The importance of designing and planing the proper disposal of municipal waste is due to the fact
that Landfills retain a large amount of urban waste accumulated over many years, and in the event of their
destruction, a massive amount of waste creates. As a result of this, other than economic costs it can cause
many environmental problems, as well as many human mortalities. For this reason, the study of the causes
of the failure of the Landfills, which occurred in the past, can help in preventing the same occurence in the
future. In this study, the defects of three landfills of Payatas, Donna Jona and Kettleman Hills are discussed.
In each case, the failure mechanism is first examined, and then the conditions that caused the failure are
discussed. In general, in order to prevent a defect ,in addition to proper design, it is necessary to maintain
special controls and observations during the operation and after the end of the utilization period.

Keywords: Engineering sanitary landfills, Design, proper construction, Environmental Problems,

considering Causes of Failure.

1. INTRODUCTION

Municipal solid waste landfills are one of the important structures that should be given consideration in the
design, implementation and operation phases. Because these structures store a large amount of contaminated
material, and if the slightest error occurs at any of these stages, it can have non-compensatory consequences
such as environmental pollution, water resources contamination and threatening the lives of thousands of living
creatures from animals and plants to human. The failures observed in the Municipal solid waste landfills
include rupture of solid waste, which can be due to factors such as very steep gradients as a result of Excessive
waste in the reservoir or increase in the pore pressure of the fluid and gas due to the large amount of leachate
remaining in the reservoir and thereby reducing shear resistance of the landfill. Therefore, it is important to
consider the correct assumptions about the behavior and characteristics of landfill and waste during design,
which, if neglected, could have significant consequences..
The purpose of this article is to investigate several of the most important failures which
occurred in the Landfills including

1- Payatas landfill located in the Philippines

2-Dona Juana landfill in Columbia
3-kettlemanhills landfill in United Sates of America
.

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1. Failure of Payatas landfill in Philippines

Payatas Landfill was built in the northwest corner of Quezon city, the largest city in Metro Manila district.
Quezon city has an area of 16100 hectares and a population of 3.2 million. The city was composed of fine-
grained alluvial or medium-sized silty clay with average plasticity. In 1988, with the closure of the Smokey
Mountains landfill, the rate of accumulation of waste in this site rose, so that between 1500 and 1800 tons of
rubbish were brought to the site place every day. This site was legally required to be closed until 1998, but
this did not happen, because the government was not able to afford expenses of construction of a new landfill,
and its closure was postponed until a few months before the failure occurred two years later. Figure 1 shows
this landfill.
Evidence suggests that transferred waste received small amount of compression, and in addition to this those
who were looking for objects inside the waste, spread and collapsed the waste arrangement. So that the
remaining materials were mainly organic materials with little resistance.

Figure 1. Payatas landfill in Quezon city (Scott et al.,(2005))

In 1999, REM transport company which handled this landfill, moved the waste located in the middle to the
corners to create space for the new waste. This resulted in two problems. Firstly the slopes of landfill curve
increased to the magnitude of 1/5 horizontal against 1 vertical direction. This occurred whereas, the slope of
the design was 3-horizontally against one vertically. Therefore, the probability of the failure of slopes
increased. However, steep slopes were adjacent to residential houses, and no protection was provided for them
against the fall. As a result of the displacement of the waste to the sides, useless district was created which was
similar to a reservoir that caused the precipitation to accumulate. Figure 2 shows the sharp slope created by the
displacement of solid waste.

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Figure 2.steep slope created due to displacement of waste (Scott et al. (2005))

The company's staff created a trench on the waste on the slope walls of the landfill so that the rain could
discharge. Hence, it eroded the walls of the landfill. In the days leading up to the collapse, a heavy rainfall
occurred in the city of Quezon, where about 75 centimeters of precipitation had been recorded for ten days at
the Quezon Meteorological Station. This amount of rain was 42 percent of the summer rainfall in the area. This
large volume of the rain caused a large amount of leachate being discharged out of the trench which was
created on the slope walls.
On the morning of July 10, 2000, a group of people who were on their way to work suddenly faced a mass of
garbage of at least 16,000 tons, caused by the collapse of solid waste in Payatas landfill. The speed of the mass
was very high, in addition to material destruction on its way made it possible to bury 330 people, with only 58
of them being rescued.
According to Scott et al. (2005) (5), the factors that lead to the failure of this landfill can be summarized as
follows.
1-placing excessive waste inside the landfill.
2. The formation of steep gradients due to the displacement of garbage.
3. Excessive volume of leachate due to heavy precipitation in the days leading up to the rupture, as well as
increasing the weight of the waste due to saturation.
4. Construction of non-standard trench for drainage of leachate, which led to erosion of the trench walls.
5. Increase of water pore pressure due to gas trapping as a result of the high degree of saturation of the waste.
6-Negligible compression as well as changing the makeup of garbage.

2.1 Stability analysis

To analyze the stability of this landfill, the UTEXASED computer program has been used. To assess the impact
of excessive rainfall Help software (Landfill hydrology evaluation program) was used. A cut from the section
for which stability analysis is performed is shown in Fig. 3.

Tensile crack containing

water 𝛶𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 = 9.81 𝐾𝑁⁄𝑚3

Municipal Failure surface

solid waste

Equivalent specific
gravity=20.9𝐾𝑁/𝑚3

Natural underlying clay

Fig.3 2D section of analyzed slope (scott et al.,(2005))

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Stability analysis was carried out using Spencer's method and due to importance of water pore-pressure
effective pressure method is used. As shown in the figure, the thickness of the municipal waste is 33.5 meters,
which 15 meters below is fully saturated. The underneath layer is clay. The slope of this landfill, as shown in
Fig. 1, is equal to a one horizontal against two vertical. The trench that was dug for leachate discharge was also
modeled as a tensile crack which is shown above the cross section. Shear strength characteristics and
specifications of the waste and subsurface soil used in stability analysis is shown in Table1.
As shown in the table, the specific gravity saturation of the waste is close to its allowable limit, which
means that its high weight has provided a landslide for the waste mass. If the specific gravity of the fluid in the
waste is equal to the specific gravity of the water the factor of safety is equal to 1.2, which indicates a partial
stability. When the waste is saturated, the gas can no longer be easily discharge from the garbage, which itself
produces additional pore pressure in addition to what is generated by Fluid.

Table 1-Specifications of waste and subsurface soil

Materials Cohesion(kPa) Effective Specific gravity Saturated specific
friction angle (𝐊𝐍⁄ 𝟑 ) gravity (𝐊𝐍⁄ 𝟑 )
𝐦 𝐦
(degree)
Municipal solid 19 28 10.2 13.9
waste
bed sU 0 - 18.6
 0.25
 v'

For the modeling of this excess pressure, the equivalent specific gravity of the fluid has been used, the value
of which equals to20/9, as shown in Fig. 3. In fact, the pore pressure of the gas created leads to this amount of
specific gravity. If the stability analysis is done with this specific gravity. The factor of safety is reduced to less
than one that expresses the occurrence of a slip in the waste mass. This fluid specific gravity also creates static
liquefaction or hydraulic failure, which makes the mass of waste move at a great rate, which is also consistent
with the report of the witnesses of the incident..

2. Dona Juana landfill in Columbia

On average, this landfill received around 5,000 tons of waste per day and collapsed in September 1997, which
lead to a mass of 800,000 tons of urban waste. The tank, as shown in Fig. 4, has two parts identified in Figure
4 including Zone I and Zone II. Zone I was used from 1989 to 1995, and Zone II was used from mid-1995 until
the landslide slip. On September 27, 1997, eight hundred thousand tons of municipal waste in the Zone II,
which was considered an active area, fell into slip. The garbage mass entered the Tunjuelito River and blocked
it. Figure 5 illustrates this issue.

Fig.5 Blockage of Tunjuelito river Fig.4 Zoning of Dona Juana (Caicedo et al. (2002))

The waste was poured into 2.5 m layers and then a 25 cm thick layer of daily cover was placed on it. Due to
its very low permeability, the hydraulic connection between each layer was carried out by channels filled with

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boulders that were excavated inside the daily covers. In order to collect gas, vertical wells were built with the
placement of the solid waste in each lift at 50 meters intervals. Three months before the landfill slip, a pilot
project for leachate recirculation was carried out in which the volume of 40,000 cubic meters of leachate was
circulated inside the Landfill. For this purpose, the circulation wells were built inside the system and the
leachate collected from the inside of the landfill was pumped into the system repeatedly.

3.1 waste composition

The waste is divided into three categories of organic materials, inert materials and high deformability materials.
As shown in Figure 6, the majority of the waste was made up of organic materials with low resistance, Which
have the potential to produce leachate and gas.

inert materials 7.5%

organic
materials high deformability
47.8% materials 44.7%

Fig.6 waste composition (Caicedo et al. (2002))

3.2 Stability analysis

Caicedo et al. (2002) used a mathematical model for reservoir modeling taking into account all the necessary
properties that were solved numerically and using finite element method. In this model, the pore pressure of
the gas and leachate was considered as a function of time.In three modes, the water pore pressure inside the
drainage wells was measured in accordance with Table 2. As it is known, the construction of the recirculation
system will increase the water pore pressure compared to the state of the only drainage well with out circulation
system.

Table 2-water pore pressure in different modes

Drainage wells with Drainage wells without No drainage wells
circulation system circulation system
0.3MPa 0.25MPa 0.5MPa

The calculations of slope stability analysis are carried out by the Bishop method for circular surfaces and the
Janbu method for non-circular surfaces. As shown in Figure 7 the factor of safety gradually decreases with
increasing gas in the Landfill. With the onset of the process of recirculation of the leachate in the vertical wells,
a sharper decrease in the factor of safety is observed. However, if this were not done, the factor of safety graph
in both of the circular and non-circular surfaces would tend to a horizontal line, and thus the probability of
failure would be eliminated.

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Fig.7 factor of safety in different modes (Caicedo et al. (2002))

4. Kettleman hills landfill in United states of America

This landfill, which was located in the state of California in the Kettleman hills area, collapsed on March
19, 1988. This site had an area of 6/14 hectares with a bowl reservoir that has been excavated at a depth
of 30 meters. Figure. 8 shows the view of the landfill before the rupture happens.

Fig.6 Kettleman hills landfill before failure

This landfill has a horizontal base and walls with slopes of one to three and one to two. The base and walls
of this reservoir are layered using multi-layered systems in accordance with Figures 8 and 9. For
constructional reasons, the layering of the first phase, including the northern end of the reservoir, including a
range of 6 hectares was done initially, followed by accumulation of waste in this area beginning in early
1987. Simultaneous layering of other phases was also performed.
In mid-March 1988, the height of garbage in phase 1 of landfill reached its maximum height of 27 meters,
but no trace of cracks was seen at this time. At 6:30 PM on March 19, 1988, a 1/2 inch crack at the truck
ramp was observed. This crack opened slightly so that the lateral displacement of the waste mass was 10.5
meters and its vertical displacement reached 2.4 meters, causing a garbage truck to be buried in the waste.

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Fig 8. Layering system of walls Fig 9. Layering system of base (Mitchel et al. ,1990)

4.1 stability analysis

In order to perform the stability analysis, it is necessary to first provide information on the frictional resistance
between the various components of the liner system as well as the shear strength of the clay liner. The reason
of using the remaining shear strength is that the maximum shear strength happened during the construction of
the liners or the placement of garbage in the landfill.
According to Michel et al. (1990) (4, 3, 2), the shortcomings of this landfill can be summarized as follows: the
friction between contact surfaces of the geosynthetic layers , geosynthetic layers and the clay layer is small and
as a result slip has happened between these layers.
Table 3 shows the angle of friction between these layers under different conditions.

Table 3-friction angle between different layers

Residual shear strength/ friction angle(degree)
Contact surfaces
Dry condition Wet condition
HDPE Geotextile/liner 𝜙𝑟 ≈ 9 ± 1 𝜙𝑟 ≈ 8 ± 1
HDPE Geonet/liner 𝜙𝑟 ≈ 8.5 ± 1 𝜙𝑟 = 8.5 ± 1
HDPE Clay/liner Not available 𝜏𝑟 ≈ 900𝑝𝑠𝑓 ± 250 𝑝𝑠𝑓
Geotextile/geonet 𝜙𝑟 > 20 𝜙𝑟 > 12

Geotextile/clay Not available 𝜙𝑟 ≈ 24

4.2 Failure factors of landfill

Many factors, such as the degree of polishing, the dryness, or the level of moisture of contact surfaces and, in
some cases, the layering of the layers relative to the shear stress applied, can affect the shear strength of the
layers. The compressed clay layer can have pore water pressure at its contact surface due to moisture during
construction, which can reduce the effective stress and thus reduce the shear strength between the clay layer
and other layers.
Due to the large resemblance of shear strength parameters between different layers, it can not be said with
certainty that the rupture initially begins at which contact surface, but the most critical contact surfaces that
control the stability of the system are the contact surfaces between geomembrane layer and geotextile,
geomembrane layer and geonet and geomembrane and clay layer.

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5 Conclusion
1 - In case of excessive storage of garbage in the landfill, stability of the landfill is endangered by the
increasing of landfill slope, which can lead to a rupture in the waste mass.
2. The volume of leachate is one of the most important factors in determining the stability of the landfill, and
if the production volume of leachate in the landfill is more than its limit, the stability of the landfill is
threatened.
3. The leachate-circulation system, although reducing the contamination index of leachate over time, but
because it allows more leachate to remain in the landfill, can provide a bursting rupture if no control is done.
4. Before designing, it is necessary to gather enough information about the characteristics of the different
parts of the landfill to make the landfill design based on proper assumptions, as otherwise there might be a
chance of damaging and disruption of landfill performance.
5. Generally, Landfill management and monitoring how it is used after its construction is important. Because
if the utilization of landfill is not in accordance with the method for which it is intended, it cannot be
expected that it will continue to function without any problems.

6 References
1-B.Caicedo, E.Giraldo, L.Yamin,N.Soler,The landslide of Dona Juana Landfill in Bogota, Conference Paper
January 2002
2- Mitchell, J.K., R.B. Seed, M. Chang, The Kettleman Hills Landfill Failure: A Retrospective View of the Failure
Investigations and Lessons Learned, Third International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical
Engineering
3-Mitchell, J.K., R.B. Seed, and H.B. Seed (1990a),Kettleman Hil Waste Landfill Slope Failure. I: Liner System
Properties," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE., Vol. 116, No. 4, pp. 647-668.
4-Seed, R.B., J.K. Mitchell, H.B. Seed (1990), "Kettleman Hills Waste Landfill Slope Failure. II: Stability
Analyses," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering,A.S.C.E., Vol. 116, No.4, pp. 669-690.
5-Scott M. Merry,; Edward Kavazanjian Jr.; and Wolfgang U. Fritz, Reconnaissance of the July 10, 2000,Payatas
Landfill Failure

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