Design Report 1: Municipal Solid Waste

Facility in Royal Oak

X______________________________ Khoder Daher

X______________________________ Matthew DeSantis

X______________________________ Harry Vaslo

X______________________________ Anthony Victor

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Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………....………………...3

Site Location..…………………………………………………………………...……….…......3

Landfill Lifespan….………………………………………………………………………....…..4

Area and Volume………………………………………………………………………….…….4

Road Lengths……………………………………………………………………………….…...5

Cross Section…………………………………………………………………………….……...5

Description of Design Parameters……………………………………..……………………...6

Description of Materials………………………………………………………………....……...6

Liner and Fill Materials…………………………………………………………………..……...7

Leachate Design……………………………………………………………….………………...7

Pipes and Lengths………………………………………………………….…………………....8

Ancillary Facilities……………………………………………………………………..………....9

Scenario B: Doubling of Overall Recycling Rate……………………………………..……....9

Scenario C: Amount of Paper Waste Decreases by Half…………………………………....9

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..……....10

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………….……....11

References…………………………………………………………………………………..…...18
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Introduction

We have been tasked by the city of Royal Oak to determine the specifications for a
municipal solid waste landfill to be created in Oakland Charter Township. This landfill must be
able to service Royal Oak residents for 20 years, with expectations of growth. In addition, all
facilities, roadways, and protective measures must be considered for the lifespan of the landfill.
Finally, three separate scenarios must be considered for the 20 year waste production:
● Scenario A: The recycling rate remains constant
● Scenario B: Recycling rate doubles by 2038
● Scenario C: Amount of paper waste present in the municipal solid waste is halved by
2038
The design of our landfill and its cross-section will both be drawn according to the values we get
from computing scenario A. Refer to the Appendix section to see all calculations.

Site Location

The area from which we were allowed to place our landfill had Brewster Road to the
west, Livernois Road to the east, Silver Beal Road to the north, and Dutton Road to the south.
The following are the two locations we believed our landfill could be:

Figure 1. Topographical map of designated area with selected site highlighted in purple.
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There are several reasons we chose to place our landfill in these two areas. First, there
are restrictions on how close landfills can be to wetlands and streams. With these locations, we
are at least 30 meters away from any nearby streams, and farther still from Paint Creek, a
protected trout stream and wetland area (Davis, Mackenzie, Cornwell, and David, 813). Our
sites are also located on level ground, which eliminates the risk of landslides and allows us to
not have to remove as much earth when digging up areas for waste (Davis, Mackenzie,
Cornwell, and David, 813).
We analyzed roadways in the area, and examined the potential impact that would result
from an influx of traffic. We found that Silverbell Road near Orion Road possessed drawbacks
such as weight restrictions, a high grade, and a narrow width, which would severely limit the
volume of truck traffic able to travel and drop off waste. Based on these factors, it was
determined the ideal location for our landfill would be near the intersection of Dutton Road and
Brewster Road (area highlighted in purple), with trucks entering and exiting the site off of Dutton
Road.

Landfill Lifespan

We chose a value of 20 years to calculate volume and area for our landfill. At the end of
20 years our landfill will be at capacity based on the amount of waste we calculated. This is
estimated to sufficiently service the population of Royal Oak based on our estimated growth of
the city and the residents waste disposal habits. At the end of 20 years the landfill will close and
go into the final phase where it will be monitored and vent gases collected periodically.

Area and Volume

Volume was first calculated for the initial year 2018 based on waste disposal habits of
the citizens of Royal Oak. This data was compiled from documents released from the
Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority (SOCRRA). The amount of
monthly municipal solid waste from the SOCCRA documents was used for a baseline (SOCRRA
2016 Agenda). The composition and compaction of the MSW was assumed to be the same as
Tables 11-10 and 11-11 in the ​Introduction to Environmental Engineering​ textbook. Population
for Royal Oak was sampled from 2010-2016 and a linear regression was created in Excel to
estimate population growth. This equation was applied to our landfill’s expected lifespan
(2018-2038) to estimate population growth over this time. A detailed table can be viewed in the
appendix. For scenario A, we assumed the volume of waste per capita, the density of waste,
and volume of waste would remain constant over 20 years. Therefore, the volume of waste
would be linear with the population growth. The landfill volume and area was rewritten as a
function of population and the values recorded for each year. The summation of years
2018-2038 gave us our final volume and area for scenario A. In this case we determined the
volume of trash over 20 years to be 2,032,927.98 m³. The total area was also determined to be
205,346.3 m², or 50.74 acres of land, which is sufficient considering we have 130 acres
available for development.
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Road Lengths

The landfill is serviced by a single road that has an outlet on Dutton Road. As previously
mentioned, Dutton road does not have any weight restrictions to prohibit certain vehicles from
coming to the landfill. The main service road is two lanes and approximately 9 meters wide and
1000 meters long. It follows the boundaries of our single landfill cell to the east and north. This
layout will allow easy access for trucks and equipment to reach anywhere in the landfill
boundaries.

Cross Section

This portion of the report will cover the cross section of our landfill design including
description of design parameters and materials.

Figure 2: Cross-section of landfill

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Description of Design Parameters

Office Building - Provides workplace and environment for administrative and managerial
workers.

Gas Collection System - Purposed to process, gather, and treat methane gas emitted from
decomposing garbage to produce electricity, heat, fuels, and various chemical compounds.

Groundwater probes - These pipes are sunk into the groundwater so water can be sampled and
tested for the presence of leachate and other chemicals. Temperature is also measured
because the temperature rises when solid waste decomposes.

Gas Probe - Detects the presence of a leakage of methane gas and other chemical substances.

Storm Water Drainage - Collects rainwater that falls on the landfill

Leachate Collection System - collects water that has percolated through the landfill itself and
contains contaminating substances and chemicals called leachate.

Cap - Seals off the top of the landfill and allows the growth of vegetation. Protection from smell.

Bottom Liner - Separating layer between trash and subsequent leachate from groundwater.

Cell - containment unit of refuse within a landfill system.

Bench - According to section 11.4, page 818, of the environmental book any landfill whose
height exceeds 15 m should have a slope stability parameter. This is called a bench.

Lift - Placement of layer of waste and soil that completes that unit of refuse.

Retention Pond - Used to manage storm runoff to prevent flooding and erosion.

Clay Liner - Used to reduce water pollution. These are helpful when reducing leachate migration
into subsoil.

Description of Materials

Geotextile/Geomembrane - Predominately HDPE, have been used in landfills for 30 years. They
can be used for caps, floating covers for leachate ponds, and liners between layers of materials.
Can be used between sides and floors of containment units. Helps prevent contamination of
groundwater and subsequent layers by waste or leachate.
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Top Soil Cap - Soil helps vegetation grow and caps the landfill.

Granular Material/Drainage - Acts as a drainage layer for fluids. Typically granular material such
as sand and gravel is used.

Daily Cover - Daily covering of soil overtop cells of waste such to retain and isolate refuse.
Manageability of leakage and space.

Groundwater - This is the part of the landfill that we do not want to contaminant and keep
environmentally friendly.

Subgrade - Bottom of landfill. This plot of land is what we build our landfill on and the very
bottom portion is the acting subgrade which we do not want to containment. That is why we use
synthetic liners, clay, and other materials to protect against leakage.

Liner and Fill Materials

During the active life of the landfill, certain materials will need to be implemented for safe
and effective design. First, a Geosynthetic Clay Liner, or a GCL, will be placed as a base layer
for the entire area of the landfill, or 50.74 acres.

In addition to liner materials, fill dirt needs to be added to separate the trash and prevent
leachate production in an active cell. Based on EPA standards, we determined that 0.15 m of fill
was needed daily within a cell, and an extra 0.15 m weekly. In addition, when a cell is to be
closed, 0.3 m of dirt is to be added to cap it, followed by a geosynthetic liner. This top layer will
be sloped towards the retention pond in order to prevent excessive leachate from being
produced. In total, this amounts to 2002.5 m³ of soil per stack.

Leachate Design

Having a well-designed leachate collection system is crucial to prevent contamination of

soil and groundwater located near our landfill. Assuming an annual precipitation rate of 33.47
in/yr and an evaporation rate of 30 in/yr, we determined that our landfill would produce
17,233.01 m³/yr of leachate, or 0.01711 ft³/s (Global Summary 2017). With this value, we can
refer to Manning’s Table (Figure 4-7) to determine the diameter of our leachate pipe; however,
the amount of leachate that we produce is so small that the table does not account for our
value. Therefore, we estimated that using leachate pipe with a 6-inch diameter would be more
than adequate.
When determining the spacing of our leachate pipes, we followed EPA guidelines when
assuming our maximum saturated depth (0.3 m), our hydraulic conductivity (2 x 10^-4 m/s), and
slope of liner (3% = 0.03 m/m) (Davis, Mackenzie, Cornwell, and David, 831). We determined
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that our leachate pipe needed to be spaced 49.93 meters apart, which we rounded to 50
meters.
The leachate will be processed on-site via recirculation through the landfilled waste.
This process provides moisture for the microbial population in the leachate, and accelerates the
stabilization process. It also produces methane and treats the biodegradable fraction of the
constituents in the leachate (Davis, Mackenzie, Cornwell, and David, 833).
Our leachate collection system follows EPA guidelines. The depth of the leachate above
the liner is 0.3 meters. Our system lies upon a compacted soil liner with a max permeability of
1e-7 cm/s, and a protective sand layer lies atop it. The slope of our system is 3%, or 0.03 m/m,
which is greater than the minimum 2% slope. For our membrane liner, we decided to use
high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The following is a cross-section of our leachate system:

Figure 3. Cross-section of leachate system

Pipes and Lengths

The leachate collection pipes were found to require a spacing of 50 meters. Because we
chose a square landfill plan of 455 meters square, five collection pipes were required. These
pipes, shown on the landfill detail drawing, run from the north edge of the cell toward the south
and empty into a large drain the runs along Dutton Rd. to Orion Rd. Overall each pipe would be
475 meters long, therefore a total of 2,375 meters of 6 inch pipe would be needed. Additionally,
The storm drain running to Orion Rd. would require 2,700 meters of pipe.
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Ancillary Facilities
The landfill will require operations facilities to run during its lifespan. One major facility,
as shown on the detail plan, is the main office and weigh in area. This facility is critical for
day-to-day operations and also for weighing in trucks to get paid for disposal. This office is
located immediately off of Dutton Rd. so in that all traffic is directed through this area. A
Maintenance building is located on the northeast corner of the site. This facility is responsible for
storing and repairing the vehicles and equipment used to compact and maintain the landfill.
Lastly a storage building is located adjacent to the maintenance building and is used to store
additional materials used throughout the life of the landfill.

In addition to the above structures, passive gas release piping is to be placed every 200
feet to vent gas from the landfill and to prevent methane buildup (EPA/625/R-94/008, 36). We
believe this is a sufficient distance to maintain safety throughout the site, during and after
normal operations. A retention pond is also to be placed in the northern section of the area, in
order to hold run-on rainfall to prevent it from reaching the landfill.

Scenario B: Doubling of overall recycling rate by 2038

In scenario B, the overall recycling rate for the residents of Royal Oak will double.
According the the SOCCRA documents used for estimation, the amount of recyclables returned
monthly in 2016 was 366.04 tons per month. The total was assumed to increase linearly by year
until 2038 when the total would reach 738.02 tons per month. The overall consistency and
compaction ratio was assumed not to change significantly. The total municipal solid waste was
calculated yearly by population, but the difference in 2016 recyclables and current year were
subtracted from the MSW numbers for that specific year. As seen in the Table 3 in the
appendix, the landfill volume and area were calculated using population and msw numbers for
each year. It was found in this model, in 2038 the volume of the landfill would be 1,952,432 m²,
which is 96% of the volume of scenario A. The area would be 197,215.4 m², or 48.7 acres,
which is also 96% of the area of scenario A. It was found a landfill of the same area as scenario
A (50.74 acres) could have its lifespan extended into 2039 under the scenario B model.

Scenario C: Amount of paper waste decreases by half by 2038

In scenario C, the residents of Royal Oak will cut their paper waste in half by 2038. To
model this situation, Table 11-10 was assumed to be the default composition of MSW for Royal
Oak. The paper waste mass was halved and the other waste mass fractions recalculated. A
new compaction ratio was then calculated. Table 4 in the appendix shows the results of these
calculations. The mass of paper reduced was assumed to increase linearly from 2018 to 2038.
The additional mass of paper reduced was subtracted from the estimated MSW totals by year.
Then a volume was calculated with a new average compaction ratio and MSW per capita
values. As seen in Table 5, the volume of waste in 2038 would be 1,798,931.42 m³ which is
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88% of the volume produced in scenario A. This would mean the landfill under this model would
only require 181,710.24 m² of area, or 44.9 acres. If the same area of 50.74 acres used for
scenario A was used in scenario C, the landfill life could be extended into 2041.

Conclusion

We were granted a maximum of 130 acres of land to build a landfill that would service
the citizens of Royal Oak for 20 years. Through our design, our landfill will take up barely 50
acres of land, have minimal impact on nearby roads and environment, and depending on the
waste habits of the residents, last longer than 20 years. In addition, the landfill we designed
minimizes the amount of leachate produced due to the small surface area open to the air at any
given time. And finally, all three requested scenarios are accounted for, and would be
accommodated by the site laid out here.
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Appendix
SECTION 1: SCENARIO A: RECYCLING RATE REMAINS CONSTANT
C ompaction Rate = 4.18 (T able 11 − 11)

2016 P opulation = P = 57, 236

2,144.13 tons 12 month yr Royal Oak 907.185 kg kg
C= month*Royal Oak * yr * 365 d * 57,236 cap * ton = 1.117 cap*d
kg kg
Dc = Duc * C ompaction Rate = 106 m3 (Assumption, see Example 11 − 4) * 4.18 = 443.08 m3
kg 365 d Mg Mg
M sw = P * C = 57, 236 cap * 1.117 cap*d * yr * 1000 kg = 23, 335.4 yr
kg
(57,236 cap)(1.117 cap *d ) 3
V daily = 443.08 kg3
= 144.29 md
m

3
144.29 md 2
Adaily = 0.3 m = 480.97 md

Length, W idth = √480.97 = 22 m

V walls = 0.3 m * 2.4 m * 22 m * 4 cells = 63.36 m3 * 2 = 126.72 m3

V daily, dirt = (4 stack

cells
( lif ts
) * 5 cell ) * (480.97 m ) * (0.15 m) = 1442.91 m
2 3

V weekly, dirt = 4 * (480.97 m2 ) * (0.15 m) = 288.58 m3

V f inalcover = (480.97 m2 ) * (0.3 m) = 144.29 m3

∑ V = V sw = 2002.5 m3

V s = 144.29 * 20 = 2885.8 m3
2885.8 m3 +2002.5 m3
E= 2885.8 m3 = 1.7
(57,236 cap)(1.7)(1.117 cap
kg
)( 365yr d ) 3
V LF = 443.08 kg3
*d
= 89, 532.78 myr
m

3
89,532.78 myr 2
ALF = (4 cells*2.4 m)+0.3 m = 9043.72 myr = 2.23 acres
yr
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Table 1: Population figures for Royal Oak 2010-2016

Year Population
2017 59112
2016 59051
2015 58930
2014 58984
2013 58860
2012 58480
2011 58141
2010 57253

Figure 4: Linear regression to estimate population growth of Royal Oak

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Table 2: Projected population growth and trash volume Scenario A

Year Projected Population Volume of Trash (m^3)

2018 59619 93260.98024
2019 59846 93615.49164
2020 60073 93970.00305
2021 60299 94324.51445
2022 60526 94679.02586
2023 60752 95033.53726
2024 60979 95388.04867
2025 61206 95742.56007
2026 61432 96097.07148
2027 61659 96451.58288
2028 61886 96806.09428
2029 62112 97160.60569
2030 62339 97515.11709
2031 62566 97869.6285
2032 62792 98224.1399
2033 63019 98578.65131
2034 63245 98933.16271
2035 63472 99287.67412
2036 63699 99642.18552
2037 63925 99996.69692
2038 64152 100351.2083

∑ V olume of T rash P roduced Each Y ear = 2, 032, 927.98 m3

2,032,927.98 m3
T otal Area = (4 cells*2.4 m)+0.3 m = 205, 346.3 m2

Length, W idth of Landf ill = √205, 346.3 m2 = 453.2 m

acres
Acreage = 205, 346.3 m2 * 4,046. 86 m2 = 50.74 acres
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Section 2​: SCENARIO B: DOUBLING OVERALL RATE OF RECYCLING BY 2038

Table 3. Estimations of landfill volume and area for Scenario B

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Section 3​: SCENARIO C: PAPER WASTE DECREASES BY HALF BY 2038

Table 4: Recalculate mass fraction of paper waste

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Table 5: Estimations of landfill volume and area for Scenario C

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Section 4:​ LEACHATE PIPE LENGTH

yr
in
r = 33.47 yr * 365 d *
2.54 cm
in *
d
86,400 s *
m
100 cm = 2.70 * 10−8 ms

K = 2 * 10−2 cm * 1m
100 cm = 2 * 10−4 m

S = 3% = 0.03 mm (EP A Guidelines > 2%)

y max = 0.3 m (EP A Guidelines)

[ ]
0.5 (2*10−4 )(0.03)2 (2*10−4 )(0.03) 0.5
0.3 = L( 2.70*10−8
2*10−4 ) 2.70*10 −8 +1− 2.70*10 −8 (0.03 2
+ 2.70*10−8
2*10−4 )
[ ]
0.5
0.3 = L (0.0116) 6.667 + 1 − 222.222 (( ) (
9 * 10−4 + 1.35 * 10−4 ))
0.3 = L (0.0116) [6.667 + 1 − 7.149]

L = 49.93 m ~ 50 m

Section 5:​ LEACHATE PRODUCTION

LA = P + S − E − W A

● Values found through online sources:

in m 2 m3
P recipitation = 33.47 yr * 39.3701 in * 205, 346.3 m = 174, 572.6 yr

in m 2 m3
E vaporation = 30 yr * 39.3701 in * 205, 346.3 m = 156, 473.9 yr

P ore Squeeze Liquid f rom W aste = S = 0

cm 3 cm3 m3 cm3
W aste Adsorption = W A = (21 m ) = 9, 261 m3 * 93, 260.98024 yr (trash produced in 2018) = 863, 689, 938 yr

cm3 m3 m3
863, 689, 938 yr * 1,000,000 cm3 = 865.69 yr

m3 f t3
LA = 174, 572.6 + 0 − 156, 473.9 − 865.69 = 17, 233.01 yr = 0.01711 s
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References
Davis, Mackenzie, Cornwell, David. Introduction to Environmental Engineering, 5th Edition.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2013.0. [Chegg].

EPA/625/R-94/008 (1994). Design, Operation, and Closure of Municipal Solid Waste Landfills.

United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D.C.

Fenton, Todd E. (2016). Community Demographic Profile Royal Oak, Michigan. The Retail

Coach, LLC. Tupelo, MS.

“Global Summary of the Year 2017-2017”. (2017). National Centers for Environmental

Information (Sep. 23, 2018).

Grether, C. Heidi. (2017). Report of Solid Waste Landfilled in Michigan. Michigan Department of

Environmental Quality, Lansing, MI.

SOCRRA 2016 Agenda (2016). Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority,

Royal Oak, MI.