Owner/Client
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio
Location
Jackson Township, OH
CEC Services
- Hydrogeologic Site Investigations
- Site Characterization
- Geotechnical Investigation and Engineering
- Site Grading/Earthwork Analysis
- Slope Stability
- Groundwater Monitoring and Assessment
- Landfill Design and Permitting
- Erosion & Sedimentation Control/NPDES Permitting
- Landfill Gas Management
- Leachate Management
Owner Objective
The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) is a single-county solid waste district that owns and operates the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill (FCSL) in Jackson Township, Franklin County, Ohio. The FCSL was originally permitted in 1982 with a subsequent expansion permit issued by the Ohio EPA in 1997. CEC prepared a Vertical Expansion Permit Application that reduced the disposal area but increased the vertical height which resulted in an airspace increase. CEC was selected by SWACO to prepare a contiguous and vertical expansion permit application of FCSL through a qualifications based process based on our extensive experience in solid waste permitting in Ohio, coupled with our senior leadership and project team experience at the FSCL.
CEC Approach
The FCSL expansion permitting process began in April 2016 and the permit was issued by the Ohio EPA in May 2018, requiring only 25 months to complete the geologic and geotechnical investigations, engineering design, permit application preparation, and agency approval. The design increased the disposal area only 55 acres but increased the airspace 45 million cubic yards and added 30 years to the landfill life consistent with SWACO’s long-term planning objective.
The landfill is located in a glaciated portion of Ohio that contains saturated sand lenses, which results in a relatively dense groundwater monitoring network. There is also a high-yield groundwater aquifer at the top of bedrock, which required an exemption to meet siting criteria based on measurement of groundwater travel times and comparison to isotopic dating of groundwater samples. CEC’s approach to these challenges was to work with the Ohio EPA to develop a plan to thoroughly characterize the glacial deposits beneath the expansion area, including the extent of sand lenses and intervening clay soil thickness; calculate vertical and horizontal groundwater travel velocities to the high-yield aquifer and public water supply wells in the vicinity; and develop an approvable groundwater monitoring network.
Additional design efforts included a base liner and final cap system design that meet the required slope stability safety factors. The design also required an innovative method to expand the leachate collection sumps that were going to be covered by the contiguous expansion and a system to collect landfill gas generated beneath the overlay liner system.
