On Saturday, November 12, SCS Engineers Superintendent John Jones made an unexpected discovery at work. During his CQA inspection at the Okeechobee Landfill, John discovered an injured American bald eagle on the floor of a cell in the project area. With the help of friends from Arnold’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (AWRC), the young eagle was rescued and is now recovering at Arnold’s facility.
No one knows how the eagle became injured, but three eagles were observed earlier in the morning in what appeared to be territorial combat. The young bird had the good luck of being found by John and according to Sue Arnold, the founder of AWRC, “is on his way to a full recovery and will be released back into the wild.”
When asked if the eagle has been named, Sue Arnold said they don’t usually name the rescued animals because their ultimate goal is to rescue, rehabilitate, and return recovered animals to their natural habitat. She suggested, “call him ‘JJ’ since John took the time and effort to help us rescue the eagle, which is awesome.”
The south-central Okeechobee landfill, run by Waste Management, provides local businesses and industry with professional disposal services that are safe and meet the highest standards for environmental compliance. The Landfill is a certified wildlife habitat as well. The site is certified by the National Wildlife Habitat Council. Okeechobee dedicates 2,000 of its 4,100 acres as a wildlife habitat that will soon become home again to the young eagle JJ.
Arnold’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Inc., is a non-profit 501(c) educational-based wildlife care facility. The Center is dedicated to bringing people and wildlife together to develop a community awareness of the value of Florida wildlife.
We’ll keep you posted when JJ’s release into the wildlife habitat is planned.
Getting a firm handle on a solid waste operation and expenses is a challenge for any solid waste agency manager or landfill operator. It is particularly imperative in this era of “lean and mean” budgets and looming regulatory policy. Doing more with less is the watchword for most operations across the country still reeling from the financial impacts of the Great Recession.
SCS Engineers has created a package of articles to help you identify if your landfill, landfill gas, or solid waste operation is ready for 2017. We hope this useful guidance will help you plan for the upcoming year. SCS professionals are always available to answer questions and provide advice. Find the office or SCS professional nearest to you by clicking on one the links here: Offices and Professionals.
Download, print or share this package by using the download button under the articles or by using the navigation at left. The package includes the following information written by SCS National Experts:
Article in Waste360: explains who’s impacted and how to begin managing the costs.
SCS Technical Bulletin: a digest of hundreds of EPA regulatory policy into the information and timelines to act on now.
Article: strategic financial planning to support infrastructure costs.
Call our compliance specialists – find the office nearest you or email us at
For years, Wisconsin landfills have relied on compliance with the storm water (stormwater) management requirements in the Chapter NR 500 code series to achieve compliance with the NR 216 storm water standards. Effective June 15, 2016, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) changed their policy, and now requires landfills and associated non-commercial borrow sites to obtain separate industrial storm water permit coverage.
Read the SCS Engineers Technical Bulletin to determine what action you may be required to take and by what date.
If you have questions or need help filing or developing a plan, please contact:
Betsy Powers, PE
(608) 216-7347
Sherren Clark, PE, PG
(608) 216-7323
Waste Management & Research, August 1, 2016,
Authors:
Ravi Kadambala, SCS Engineers, Boca Raton, FL
Jon Powell, Gainesville, FL, USA
Karamjit Singh, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Timothy G Townsend, Gainesville, FL
Vertical liquids addition systems have been used at municipal landfills as a leachate management method and to enhance biostabilization of waste. Drawbacks of these systems include a limitation on pressurized injection and the occurrence of seepage. A novel vertical well system that employed buried wells constructed below a lift of compacted waste was operated for 153 days at a landfill in Florida, USA. The system included 54 wells installed in six clusters of nine wells connected with a horizontally oriented manifold system. A cumulative volume of 8430 m3 of leachate was added intermittently into the well clusters over the duration of the project with no incidence of surface seeps. Achievable average flow rates ranged from 9.3 × 10−4 m3 s−1 to 14.2 ×
10−4 m3 s−1, which was similar to or greater than flow rates achieved in a previous study
using traditional vertical wells at the same landfill site.
Read the entire white paper here…
Read the NSPS – EG Technical Bulletin
While not a new concept, the authors examine the advantages and disadvantage of landfill mining as metropolitan areas grow larger and nearer to landfills, and as the landfills are filling up faster despite recycling programs.
Read or share the article by SCS Engineers’ Bruce Clark, Alyson Dagly, and Marc Rogoff here.
Landfill Services and Remediation Services at SCS Engineers
SCS periodically prepares technical bulletins to highlight items of interest to our clients and friends. These are published on our website. This SCS Technical Bulletin addresses:
Read and share the SCS Technical Bulletin here.
SCS Coal Combustion Residual Services
The unique nature of landfill decomposition and the demands of safety, environmental compliance, and energy recovery create a dynamic environment under which Landfill Gas (LFG) management systems perform. These conditions place long term stresses on system components and increasingly challenge the ability of operators to effectively and efficiently manage the collection and control of LFG in a cost effective manner.
This case study concerns an aging LFG system located in northern Virginia nicknamed the I-95 Landfill. Operation and maintenance had become onerous and expensive as the system aged. Plans to evaluate, redesign, and rebuild the system with the intention to simplify operation and optimize performance while reducing lifecycle operation and maintenance costs were implemented. This paper presents the site history of the I-95 Landfill along with the approach from system evaluation findings, the design recommendations, construction, and the lessons learned.
Survivability of leachate collection pipes depends upon the gravel placed on all sides of the pipe. Proper placement of gravel around the pipe and the granular soil material over the completed pipe/gravel/geotextile burrito is of significant importance in the protection of the leachate collection pipe.
Read the article by Dr. Ali Khatami here.
SCS Advice from the Field is a collection of blogs, articles, and white papers written by SCS professionals like Dr. Khatami. Search “advice from the field” to browse all of the topics.
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