The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that the U.S. has sustained a total cost exceeding $1.790 trillion from extreme weather and climate disasters since 1980. 2019 also marks the fifth consecutive year (2015-19) in which ten or more separate billion-dollar disaster events impacted the U.S.
Each U.S. region faces unique weather and climate events. Solid waste facilities and landfills are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather since these facilities are exposed 24/7 to the environment. Extreme weather can disrupt safe and cost-effective operations, increase maintenance needs, and may compromise landfill stability.
Rather than reacting to the costly aftermath of extreme weather, landfill owners, operators, and designers can adopt landfill operations and maintenance, fundamental design, construction, and closure measures that can help protect facilities from damage during their operational life and for decades after closure.
Register for SCS Engineers’ November webinar to learn how to increase your facility’s longevity and ability to survive extreme weather. This is a free, live webinar with Q&A – open to solid waste professionals. Then, followed by an on-demand recording in the SCS Knowledge Center, where SCS shares environmental educational videos.
The presentation and discussion focus on the considerations landfill engineers integrate when planning, including the landfill locations’ potential for wildfires or drought, intense rainfall and flooding, high temperature, strong wind, and landfalling storms such as hurricanes.
Assessing the potential impacts to operations are considered for long-term financial sustainability, including excessive runoff, soil erosion and sedimentation, slope instability, overflowing of ponds and drainage features, excessive leachate generation and side seeps, as well as disruptions to landfill gas collection and control systems, and excessive waste settlement.
Our panelists bring decades of expertise to the table, including landfill design and solid waste master planning. They will provide strategies and resources based on successful solutions that help support your facility as you prepare for, and likely will experience disruptions from severe weather. The second half of the program is devoted to Q&A and idea exchange. This educational webinar and Q&A forum are free and open to all who want to:
Important security note about registration: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information and your personal link to join the webinar. This link in your confirmation email will only work for you; it cannot be shared with others. If you’d like to suggest the webinar to your colleagues and other department heads, share this email or the registration URL above.
SCS Engineers respects your privacy and will not share or sell your information. You may cancel your reservation at any time.
We hope to see you soon.
The International Solid Waste Association – ISWA, published a comprehensive report completed by SCS Engineers for ISWA under the Climate and Clean Air – CCAC, on reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants. A CCAC Solid Waste Emissions Estimation Tool – called SWEET, was used to investigate waste sector emissions of short-lived climate pollutants -termed SLCPs, and other greenhouse gases – GHGs.
Data was collected where multiple waste management scenarios in Tyre Caza, Lebanon. Publications on waste management in Lebanon, including an Integrated Waste Management Plan and Updated Master Plan for the closure and rehabilitation of uncontrolled dumpsites throughout Lebanon, provided data that were used in this study along with updated information provided by Lebanon’s Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform.
Different management options for reducing emissions of SLCPs over the short- and medium-term. Comparing emissions reductions achieved by implementing a range of programs over a meaningful time horizon provide greater clarity of vision to see which strategies produce the most climate benefits and are worth a high level of effort and the commitment of resources to achieve.
SWEET is designed to be used by solid waste planning professionals worldwide. It allows some degree of flexibility in selecting key inputs, which gives it greater control and ability to reflect local conditions but adds a level of complexity that may be difficult for some users to navigate. While offering users control of some model assumptions, SWEET includes many calculations and assumptions that are necessarily fixed and can produce unintended results given the model’s limitations. In addition, the assignment of input data that appropriately reflects actual and expected conditions can be challenging, especially when there is a large amount of information to be considered.
The reports on solid waste management in Lebanon and Tyre Caza following the waste management crisis provided multiple sources of data that required evaluation and processing before being used in SWEET.
Click here to read, share, and download the report, ESTIMATION OF WASTE SECTOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN TYRE CAZA, LEBANON, USING THE SOLID WASTE EMISSIONS ESTIMATION TOOL (SWEET)
ISWA and CCAC will be sponsoring a training workshop on the use of SWEET in the future. For advice and guidance using SWEET contact Alex Stege, SCS Engineers Senior Project Advisor, and Expert on Landfill Gas Modeling.
Each U.S. region faces unique weather and climate events. Solid waste facilities and landfills are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather since these facilities are exposed 24/7 to the environment. Extreme weather can disrupt safe and cost-effective operations, increase maintenance needs, and may compromise landfill stability.
Register for SCS Engineers’ November webinar to learn how to increase your facility’s longevity and ability to survive extreme weather. This is a free, live webinar with Q&A – open to solid waste professionals.
Our panelists, Robert Gardner and Bob Isenberg bring decades of expertise to the table, including landfill design and solid waste master planning. They will provide strategies and resources based on successful solutions that help support your facility as you prepare for, and likely will experience disruptions from severe weather. The second half of the program is devoted to Q&A and idea exchange.
This educational webinar will help you:
SCS Engineers, in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – WDNR, is performing a waste sort to determine what’s in the trash going into Wisconsin’s landfills. During the waste audit, SCS will collect at least 200 samples of waste from 12 waste disposal sites across the state for eight weeks.
Solid waste, recycling, and diversion planners need to differentiate between the composition and sources of waste to appropriately manage recycling and diversion programs. These programs help citizens and businesses make the most out of their waste material and help control the cost of waste management.
Waste diversion can positively impact communities’ environmental health, reduce the potential for soil and water contamination, and conserve resources while reducing landfill operation costs. Municipal solid waste, called MSW, typically contains valuable materials. The cost of manufacturing using virgin materials increases, but technology creates new avenues for reusing materials formerly thrown away. The pandemic has influenced what we are consuming and where we dispose of wastes, from home or the office, influencing materials markets.
WDNR uses the waste audit data to evaluate current waste diversion programs’ effectiveness to identify and quantify additional materials that Wisconsin could divert from its landfills and serve as a baseline to measure future efforts. By comparing the new data to a previous waste composition study, WDNR can measure the impact of existing recycling and hazardous waste management programs. The comparison further helps identify waste generation trends and how the waste stream is changing.
The waste characterization study separately analyzes the waste stream generated from various sources, including residential, industrial/commercial/institutional, construction & demolition. For solid waste, recycling and diversion planners, it is vital to differentiate waste sources to target programs properly.
All of this helps make recycling more effective and identifies ways to reduce and reuse a large percentage of what is landfilled.
Many items we throw away have continued value. Cell phones and electronics contain valuable materials, like gold, for example. Cardboard is exceptionally valuable now, as citizens and businesses are taking more deliveries at home. Organics such as food and yard waste can turn into compost. Aluminum and steel cans can be recycled over and over again to make new cans. According to the Aluminum Association’s Can Committee, making a new can from recycled aluminum takes 95% less energy and releases 95% fewer greenhouse gases than creating the same can without recycled material.
Betsy Powers is a Senior Project Manager and Civil Engineer in the SCS Madison, Wisconsin office. She has more than 22 years of civil and environmental consulting experience, including landfill design, permitting and construction, C&D and yard waste management, material recovery facility design and erosion control, and stormwater management. She serves on the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin Board of Directors. Betsy is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin.
Each U.S. region faces unique weather and climate events. Solid waste facilities and landfills are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather since these facilities are exposed 24/7 to the environment. Extreme weather can disrupt safe and cost-effective operations, increase maintenance needs, and may compromise landfill stability.
Register for SCS Engineers’ November webinar to learn how to increase your facility’s longevity and ability to survive extreme weather. This is a free, live webinar with Q&A – open to solid waste professionals.
Our panelists, Robert Gardner and Bob Isenberg bring decades of expertise to the table, including landfill design and solid waste master planning. They will provide strategies and resources based on successful solutions that help support your facility as you prepare for, and likely will experience disruptions from severe weather. The second half of the program is devoted to Q&A and idea exchange.
This educational webinar will help you:
Industrial stormwater discharge regulatory compliance defined by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System – NPDES, and the Federal Multi-Sector General Permit – MSGP, slated for implementation in January 2021, will affect state Industrial General Permits. In the states where the EPA is the regulating body (New Mexico, New Hampshire, and West Virginia), the impact will be immediate.
California on the Rise, by Jonathan Meronek and Alissa Barrow, discusses the emerging general commonalties of “lessons learned” that can help dischargers successfully manage their stormwater programs.
Jonathan and Alissa explain best practices that help businesses understand and prepare ahead of the expected changes. The strategies can streamline preparation and response to minimize risk and help prevent fines and lawsuits.
About the Authors: Jonathan Meronek is a State of California IGP Qualified Industrial Stormwater Practitioner – QISP. With SCS Engineers for over 17 years, he leads Stormwater Management in the Southwest U.S. Alissa Barrow has 10 years of experience as an environmental professional specializing in environmental assessment, remediation, and compliance. Find a stormwater professional near you.
Learn more:
President, Michele Nestor
Vice President, Denise Wessels
Secretary, Tom Lock
Treasurer, Matthew Foltz
Private Sector Directors: Jill Hamill, Carolyn Witwer
Public Sector Directors: Scott McGrath and Scot Sample
Young Professionals Director: Brandon Comer
Chapter International Board Member: Robert Watts
The Solid Waste Association of North America – SWANA organization is comprised of public and private sector professionals committed to advancing solid waste management, safety, and resource management through their shared emphasis on education, advocacy, and research. Keystone SWANA serves industry professionals through technical conferences, certifications, publications, and a large offering of technical training courses which in turn keep our communities and environmental resources healthier.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors designated Alpine Village in Torrance, a Historic Landmark. The parking lot is a former landfill, and in the early ’70s, SCS Engineers designed building protection/sub-floor ventilation systems for several on-site structures. Once completed, SCS entered into contracts to monitor, maintain, prepare, and submit regulatory reports that the firm still performs well to this day.
“As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, Alpine Village is an example of one of SCS’s oldest and longest continuously running projects,” said President and CEO Jim Walsh. We’re proud that we provide valuable environmental services to businesses and communities.”
Dave Ross, Senior VP (retired), said, “This certainly underscores SCS’s longevity and sustained superior client service. I can recall the elation when we won the first LFG [landfill gas] monitoring job there…I completed one of the earliest rounds of [air] sampling on the roof of the main building.”
Learn more about SCS Engineers and the award-winning environmental services this employee-owned firm provides.
SWANA is offering educational sessions as a webinar series with CEUs available from August through November. Register for just a few or pay one flat fee to participate in as many as you would like.
This week’s Webinar is on Thursday, October 1 at 10:00 am ET, 1 CEU.
State-of-the industry practices pertaining to the design, construction, operations, monitoring, and data analytics of LFG collection and control systems, as well as investigation of the quantity (mass flux) of fugitive (uncollected) LFG emissions.
Webinar Schedule and Registration
This 1 hour SWANA Training includes topics on Landfill Gas Emissions. Register through the VRA/SWANA Webinar Series. If you’d like to learn more about the services and technologies discussed during this session, try one of these links:
SCS periodically prepares Technical Bulletins to highlight items of interest to our clients and friends who have signed up to receive them. We also publish these on our website at http://www.scsengineers.com/publications/technical-bulletins/.
Our most recent Bulletin summarizes the
This Bulletin provides information on these revisions, as follows:
