Town of Outlook Landfill Decommissioning

completed

Closed

The Project proposes the decontamination and decommissioning of a 300 m x 375 m landfill site in Outlook Saskatchewan. There is currently no intended future land use once the site has been decontaminated. Due to the distance from the Town of Outlook and the proximity to the current landfill, no future development is anticipated. The scope of work for the Project includes an environmental assessment for the purpose of decommissioning, an evapotranspiration cover system (a cover that is placed over contaminated material, such as soil, landfill waste, or mining tailings to prevent water from getting in), and post closure monitoring (installation of ground monitoring wells). The evapotranspiration cover system consists of 0.85 m of local till overlaid by 0.15 m of topsoil (a layer of soil is used as a foundation for the waste and is the first layer of a landfill liner). The plant roots are then used to prevent contaminates from leaching into the environment; in this case the leachate plume. In the model that was produced during the preliminary design, this system resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of water anticipated to percolate through the waste zone. The Ultimate Recipient has confirmed that a Phase II Environmental Site Assessments (ESA) was completed as part of a requirement of the ongoing groundwater monitoring program from the Ministry of Environment. A Phase II ESA confirmed leachate plume is present. To better monitor the migration of the leachate plume and to ensure it does not pass the site boundary, additional monitoring wells were installed and are being monitored. All landfill decommissioning would increase capacity to “reduce” soil and air pollutants. All decommissioning projects increase capacity to reduce soil and air impacts by implementing proper capping of the landfill which will (1) immediately reduce and eventually stop leachate generation which has the potential to impact soil and water, and (2) reduce air emissions from decomposing waste and operating landfill equipment.

Canada

Infrastructure Canada

Project

Water Supply and Storage, Waste Processing and Treatment, Government