Journal of Earth Science, Vol. 20, No. 3, p.

606–617, June 2009 ISSN 1674-487X

Printed in China
DOI: 10.1007/s12583-009-0050-z

Apparent Formation Factor for

Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments:
Examples from the USA and China

Philip J Carpenter*
Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Ding Aizhong (丁爱中), Cheng Lirong (程莉蓉)
College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Liu Puxin (刘普新)
Environmental Protection Bureau of Maoming, Miaoming 525000, China
Chu Fulu (楚福录)
Hebei Institute of Geophysics, Langfang 065000, China

ABSTRACT: The formation factor relates bulk resistivity to pore fluid resistivity in porous materials.
Understanding the formation factor is essential in using electrical and electromagnetic methods to
monitor leachate accumulations and movements both within and around landfills. Specifically, the
formation factor allows leachate resistivity, the degree of saturation, and, possibly, even the hydraulic
conductivity of the waste to be estimated from non-invasive surface measurements. In this study, ap-
parent formation factors are computed for three landfills with different types of waste as well as sedi-
ments contaminated by landfill leachate. Resistivity soundings at the closed Mallard North landfill in
suburban Chicago (Illinois, USA) mapped leachate surfaces that were confirmed by monitoring wells.
The resistivity of leachate-saturated waste from resistivity sounding inversions was then divided by the
leachate resistivity values measured in-situ to compute apparent formation factors (Fa) ranging from
1.6 to 4.9. A global Fa of 3.0±1.9 was computed for the entire monitored portion of this landfill. At a
nearby mixed laboratory waste landfill, a 2D inverted resistivity section was used to compute an Fa of
2.9. Finally, a distinctly different Fa value of 10.6±2.8 was computed for leachate-saturated retorted oil
shale wastes north of Maoming (茂名), Guangdong (广东) Province, China. Shallow aquifers in the
Laohuling (老虎岭) Formation near this landfill are polluted by acidic leachate containing heavy metals
and organic compounds. The Fa for aquifers containing contaminated groundwater fall in the same
range as aquifers with normal groundwater,
This study was supported by the National Natural Science 1.7–3.9. However, models from inverted sound-
Foundation of China (No. 40873076), Science & Technology ing curves over these contaminated areas exhibit
Project of Guangdong Province (2KM06506S), the Environ- unusually low resistivity layers, which may be
mental Protection Bureau of Maoming, Northern Illinois Uni- diagnostic of contamination.
versity, and Argonne National Laboratory. KEY WORDS: landfill, leachate, formation fac-
*Corresponding author: phil@geol.niu.edu tor, Archie’s law, Maoming.

Manuscript received November 5, 2008.

Manuscript accepted February 6, 2009.
Apparent Formation Factor for Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments: Examples from the USA and China
INTRODUCTION
Purpose and Scope
Over the past 40 years, resistivity, electromag-
netic, ground-penetrating radar, and seismic methods
have found wide application in landfill studies. Two-
and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) resistivity surveys
are now routinely used to characterize landfills and
other waste sites (e.g., Chambers et al., 2006; Ogilvy
et al., 2002, 1999; Bernstone et al., 2000). The inter-
pretation of resistivity models from these types of
surveys could benefit from an understanding of the
formation factor in waste materials, which relates
waste porosity, degree of saturation, and fluid resistiv-
ity. This study combines leachate conductivity meas-
urements and surface resistivity measurements
(soundings and 2D surveys) to estimate the apparent
formation factor for saturated waste within three dif-
ferent types of landfills. Contaminated sediments are
also assessed in one case.
Background
The concept of formation factor was first pro-
posed by Sundberg (1932), who examined the ratio of
rock resistivity to that of a conductive pore fluid.
Archie (1942) defined the formation factor by show-
ing that the resistivity of brine-filled sandstone cores
is directly proportional to the resistivity of the pore
water, i.e.,
ρr=Fρw (1)
where ρr is the saturated bulk rock resistivity; F is the
formation factor; and ρw is the resistivity of the brine.
Archie then related the formation factor to the porosity
of the sandstone and the empirical constants a and m
F=aφ-m (2)
where a is the tortuosity coefficient; φ is the effective
porosity; and m is the cementation exponent. The pa-
rameter m has also been related to the shape of grains
or pores by other investigators (Ransom, 1984; Jack-
son et al., 1978). Equation (2) is often referred to as
Archie’s law or Archie’s equation (Hearst et al., 2000).
For rocks, a typically varies from 0.62–2.45 and m
from 1.08–2.15 (Asquith and Gibson, 1983). In un-
consolidated sediments and soils, m values range from
1.39 to 1.58 (Jackson et al., 1978). An extension of
Archie’s law allows the degree of saturation to be es-
timated from
607
Sw=(ρwF/ρt)1/n (3)
where Sw is the degree of water saturation; ρt is the
“true” unsaturated resistivity; and n is the saturation
exponent, usually about 2 (Hearst et al., 2000; Asquith
and Gibson, 1983). Equation (3) is commonly referred
to as the “Archie equation for water saturation” (As-
quith and Gibson, 1983).
Archie’s law traditionally requires an insulating
matrix, connected porosity, and brine pore fluid. Thus,
Archie’s law is not valid for rocks and sediments with
significant clay mineral volumes (which exhibit sur-
face conductance) or those with metallic conductive
matrix minerals. The formation factor may still be de-
fined for these materials, however, in some cases us-
ing more complex models such as those advanced by
Waxman and Smits (1968). Worthington (1993) sug-
gested the term apparent formation factor, Fa, be used
to describe rocks and sediments that are not clean
sands—i.e., they contain some fraction of clay or
other conductive matrix minerals. Worthington’s ter-
minology, Fa, is adopted in this article since landfills
often contain significant but unknown quantities of
conductive refuse and clay.
Over the past 66 years, the concept of formation
factor and Archie’s law have been extended to a wide
variety of lithologies with different pore sizes, shapes,
and cementation (e.g., Hearst et al., 2000; Ransom,
1984; Jackson et al., 1978; Aguilera, 1974; Atkins and
Smith, 1961). Attempts have also been made to apply
Archie’s equation to artificial non-geological materi-
als (Bouguerra et al., 1998), including municipal solid
waste (MSW) and leachate-saturated rocks (Aristo-
demou and Thomas-Betts, 2000; Meju, 2000). Using
Archie’s law and computing the Fa in MSW involves
compromises, since this system usually contains clay
or conducting metallic matrix materials. If metal re-
fuse and clay compose a relatively small volume of
the waste pile, however, Grellier et al. (2007, 2003)
and Guerin et al. (2004) suggested that electrical resis-
tivity tomography (ERT) may be combined with
Archie’s law to estimate the moisture content of land-
fill waste.
Importance of Formation Factor in Landfill
Studies
The formation factor may help characterize
608 Philip J Carpenter, Ding Aizhong, Cheng Lirong, Liu Puxin and Chu Fulu

leachate and hydraulic conditions within landfills in at MALLARD NORTH LANDFILL, SUBURBAN
least three ways. CHICAGO
(1) In situations where waste is leachate-saturated, The first study site is the Mallard North landfill,
the F allows leachate resistivity to be estimated from located in Hanover Park, Illinois, 48 km northwest of
the resistivity of the waste. Leachate resistivity (or Chicago (Fig. 1). This 16-hectare landfill accepted
conductivity) then may be related to the total dis- municipal refuse from 1970 to 1974. This landfill is
solved solids (TDS) concentration. Leachates with bordered by a housing development to the north and
high TDS, in general, tend to pose a greater risk for the west branches of the DuPage River to the east,
groundwater pollution if they leak from a landfill. west, and south. Mallard North lies on a 40 m section
(2) In situations where waste is unsaturated, the of floodplain sediments, the Wisconsinan Wadsworth
formation factor is used in computing the degree of Till, and the lower Wisconsinan outwash and lacus-
saturation (or moisture content) from equation (3). trine deposits, above an important Silurian dolomite
Mapping the degree of saturation within a landfill is aquifer.
extremely useful in many situations. For example,
bioreactor landfills enhance waste degradation by re-
circulating leachate through the waste pile via vertical
or subhorizontal leachate injection pipes. The effec-
tiveness of the injection may be assessed, in part, by
electrical resistivity or electromagnetic conductivity
surveys in which the degree of saturation is mapped
(Carpenter et al., 2008; Grellier et al., 2007, 2003).
(3) Finally, the formation factor may be related to
hydraulic conductivity in some cases (Kwader, 1985;
Kelly, 1977). The hydraulic conductivity of in-situ
waste is largely unknown, and the F, if properly cali-
brated at a landfill with known hydraulic conductivity
values, might then be used to predict the hydraulic
conductivity of MSW at other landfills.
In this study, apparent formation factors are
computed from data obtained in previous landfill sur-
veys. The porosity values for landfill waste were not
available at these sites, thus, Fa is computed using
equation (1): bulk waste resistivity (from inversion of
Figure 1. Map of the Mallard North landfill show-
apparent resistivity data) is divided by nearby subsur-
ing resistivity and seismic refraction lines, along
face leachate conductivity values. This technique has
with gas vent locations, some of which were used
been previously employed by Meju (2000) in a similar
for leachate sampling (after Carpenter et al.,
situation where subsurface cores and waste porosity
1991a). Inset shows location of landfill northwest of
information were not available. In this study, three
Chicago.
different types of landfills are examined: a typical
MSW landfill and a mixed-waste landfill near Chi-
The landfill consists of a 2–20 m thick mound of
cago, Illinois, USA; and a landfill containing retorted
refuse enclosed by a compacted clay-till cover and a
oil shale wastes north of Maoming City, Guangdong
natural till liner (in places). Cover materials average
Province, China.
1.7 m thick and overlie municipal refuse consisting
primarily of cloth, glass, wood, plastic, organic debris,
and metal. The refuse is mixed with varying amounts
of clay-till, gravel, cobbles, and topsoil in 7.6 m lifts
Apparent Formation Factor for Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments: Examples from the USA and China 609

separated by occasional 0.15–0.3 m compacted clay
layers. Bucket-auger borings through the waste sug-
gest that the overall clay percentage is about 6%
(Price, 1990). The lower portion of the refuse is
leachate-saturated and rests directly on the clayey
Wadsworth Till or alluvium from the DuPage River.
Differential subsidence across Mallard North has
produced a set of generally north-trending fractures
and fracture zones that incise the landfill cover. These
fractures may be up to 15 cm wide and are conduits
for escaping landfill gas as well as infiltrating surface
water (Booth and Price, 1989). Much of this landfill is
saturated with leachate, which leaks out around its
base.
Resistivity Soundings
A total of 16 resistivity soundings were collected
to help improve leachate level delineation and esti-
mate refuse thickness across the landfill. Both Wenner
and Schlumberger electrode configurations were em-
ployed. Line lengths varied from 120–180 m, with the
maximum “a” spacing for Wenner arrays ranging
from 45–60 m and a maximum AB/2 spacing for
Schlumberger arrays of 60 m. An ABEM SAS 300B
resistivity unit was used with four stainless steel elec-
trodes to collect the soundings. Sounding lines were
deployed over relatively flat areas of the landfill
where vegetation was minimal and remedial work was
not being done (Fig. 1). Most sounding curves were fit
with 4-layer resistivity models derived using the
ResixPlusTM software package (Interpex, 1988), which
inverts the sounding data. The models consist of cover
materials, unsaturated refuse, and leachate-saturated
refuse overlying a half-space consisting of alluvium
and/or glacial till. Sounding 10 (Fig. 2) illustrates the
basic sounding curve shape, resistivity model, and
boring log from a nearby deep gas vent.

Figure 2. (a) Resistivity sounding 10 (Wenner array) from Mallard North. Resistivity inversion model is
shown in (b) and a log from a deep gas vent, illustrating the correspondence between the layered resistivity
model and the waste, is shown in (c). “Fa comp” refers to the layer used for Fa computations. C. cover ma-
terial; R. unsaturated refuse; RL. leachate-saturated refuse; W. Wadsworth Till and/or alluvium.

The results of the resistivity surveys are dis-
cussed in detail in Carpenter et al. (1994, 1991a,
1990a) as well as numerous conference proceeding
papers and reports, so the results will only be summa-
rized here. In general, the leachate levels estimated
from resistivity models show good agreement with the
leachate levels measured in deep vents (used to release
landfill gases) and monitoring wells. The resistivity
contrast between the conductive leachate and unsatu-
rated refuse allowed the top of the leachate layer to be
accurately delineated. The refuse at Mallard North ex-
hibits resistivities ranging from 9 to 19 Ω·m (unsatu-
rated) to 2–7 Ω·m (leachate-saturated). The accurate
definition of the refuse thickness in geoelectrical
610 Philip J Carpenter, Ding Aizhong, Cheng Lirong, Liu Puxin and Chu Fulu

models is dependent on a strong resistivity contrast
between the leachate-saturated refuse, which averages
about 3 Ω·m, and the underlying till and alluvium
(12–50 Ω·m). Thirty seismic refraction profiles were
also made over Mallard North (shown in Fig. 1).
However, head waves from the top of the refuse (or
deeper interfaces) were not detected on any of the
landfill refraction lines due to a velocity reversal at the
base of the cover and high attenuation in the refuse
(Carpenter et al., 1991a).
Estimating the Formation Factor
Leachate resistivity was measured in selected
deep gas vents with a TLC conductivity meter on the
same dates resistivity soundings were made. The TLC
meter (Model 107 TLC meter, manufactured by
Solinst, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada) records the re-
sistivity and temperature of the fluid within the gas
vents, which is assumed to be representative of the
leachate saturating the waste. Conductivity values
were then converted to leachate resistivity.
The Fa for the leachate-saturated waste was
computed as shown in Table 1. Only five Wenner ar-
ray soundings with high-quality solutions were used in
this analysis. Uncertainties in the Fa are based on the
equivalence range (resistivity uncertainty) of the satu-
rated waste layer, computed through a trial-and-error
procedure by the resistivity sounding inversion pro-
gram. The uncertainty in the Fa was computed by first
computing a maximum and minimum Fa from the
equivalence range and then taking the average differ-
ence between these values and the optimum Fa.

Table 1 Apparent formation factors for Chicago-area landfills

Sample loca- Sample Leachate resis- Number of nearest Saturated waste Equivalence Apparent
tion* depth (m) tivity (Ω·m) sounding resistivity (Ω·m) range (Ω·m) formation factor (Fa)
DV-1 (MN) 6.1 1.6 8 2.6 0.1–8.0 1.6±1.6
DV-5 (MN) 3.8 2.9 10 6.9 6.0–7.6 2.4±1.3
DV-7 (MN) 4.6 1.7 12 5.8 4.3–7.9 3.4±1.1
DV-8 (MN) 11.0 1.4 9 4.5 2.8–6.8 3.2±1.9
DV-10 (MN) 3.8 1.4 10 6.9 6.0–7.6 4.9±0.6
B-1 (ANL) 3.0 7.9 – 18.0 15.0–21.0 2.3±0.4

*ANL is Argonne National Laboratory; MN is Mallard North.

The resistivity of the leachate vs. the bulk waste

Figure 3. Plot of bulk waste resistivity as a function
of leachate resistivity for the Mallard North land-
fill. The least square line through the points may be
used to estimate a “global” or average Fa for the
sampled portion of the landfill.
resistivity was also plotted to estimate the global Fa
for the entire sampled area of the landfill, as shown in
Fig. 3. A value of Fa=3.0 was obtained by fitting a
least-square line through the data points. The r2 value
for the fit is 0.66, and the standard deviation in the
global Fa (from uncertainty in the slope) is 1.9. More
data points with a wider distribution would have pro-
vided a better-constrained solution. The least-square
line is also constrained to pass through the origin, and
this constraint greatly influences the slope. Sounding 8
exhibits a slightly lower waste resistivity than the
other soundings and lies somewhat below the linear
trend. This sounding is on the northwest portion of the
landfill where the waste is the oldest. Perhaps the
waste has degraded more here and has a higher poros-
ity and permeability.
Apparent Formation Factor for Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments: Examples from the USA and China 611

AREA 800 LANDFILL, ARGONNE NATIONAL
LABORATORY
The Area 800 landfill is located approximately
24 km southwest of Chicago, IL, near the western
margin of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
reservation. This 9-hectare landfill was opened in
1966 and closed in the early 1990s. Early disposal op-
erations were centered along the eastern half of the
present landfill and involved the disposal of solid and
liquid non-radioactive laboratory, office, food service,
and construction wastes. About 114 000 L of solvent
waste was poured into a “French drain” in the north-
ern portion of the landfill during the 1970s and 1980s
(STS, 1980). Asbestos debris was also buried in the
northwestern portion of the landfill during the late
1980s and early 1990s.
The ANL lies on a thick sequence of glacial tills
of the Valparaiso Moraine system (Willman, 1971).
The Area 800 landfill lies above a brown, silty clay
unit that grades downward into gray silty clay with
disseminated coarse sand and gravel. The landfill di-
rectly rests on topsoil and the brown, silty clay unit
and apparently has no engineered liner. Sand and
gravel bodies are present within the gray clayey unit
between 9.5 and 12.5 m depth beneath the southern
boundary of the landfill. Silurian dolomite bedrock
was encountered at an average depth of 44 m beneath
the Area 800 landfill (Patton et al., 1990), and the wa-
ter table lies within 1–2 m of the ground surface
around the landfill.
Resistivity Surveys
During the early 1990s, leachate seeps developed
along the northeast and eastern margins of the landfill.
The leachate was apparently very close to the surface
as tire ruts on a haulage road intersected the leachate
surface. To assess the depth extent of the leachate, one
boring was made on the eastern side of the landfill,

Figure 4. Two-dimensional resistivity panels for line DD4 at the Area 800 landfill, Argonne National Labo-
ratory. The location is shown in the inset at lower right. (a) shows the recorded data (the vertical scale is the
n value of the dipole), (b) is synthetic section intended to match the top panel, and (c) shows true inverted
resistivities. High resistivity near the western edge represents buried unsaturated asbestos debris, and the
large blue area probably represents leachate-saturated refuse. The leachate sampling point is indicated at
position 60 m, at a depth of approximately 3 m.
612 Philip J Carpenter, Ding Aizhong, Cheng Lirong, Liu Puxin and Chu Fulu
and a leachate sample collected from an approximate
depth of 3 m. The resistivity of this leachate sample
was 7.9 Ω·m.
Later, two-dimensional (2D) resistivity surveys
were employed to investigate the extent of this
leachate mound prior to the remediation and capping
of the landfill. Thirteen dipole-dipole surveys were
made across the flat parts of the northern portion of
the landfill using an ABEM SAS 300B resistivity me-
ter with manual deployment and movement of a
4-electrode system. Dipole lengths of 1.52 m were
used with separations of 1, 3, 5, and 7 times the dipole
width.
Figure 4 shows profile DD4, which intersects the
leachate sampling borehole. All 13 resistivity sections,
along with a base map, are presented and discussed in
more detail in an Argonne National Laboratory report
(Carpenter et al., 1990b), a conference proceeding
paper (Carpenter et al., 1991b), and briefly, in Elmore
and Carpenter (2005). Apparent resistivity data were
inverted using Res2DInv (Loke and Barker, 1996) to
produce a 2D block resistivity model, which was then
contoured and displayed. The approximate resistivities
of the blocks near the leachate sampling point suggest
that the saturated waste resistivity is about 18 Ω·m.
This gives an Fa=2.3 for the eastern portion of the
Area 800 landfill. The uncertainty in the Fa was com-
puted from the equivalence range for a layer at this
same depth from an inverted resistivity sounding in
the central portion of the landfill (about 30 m west of
the sample point). The results are shown in Table 1.
Unfortunately, no other leachate sampling points were
installed during the resistivity surveys.
MAOMING OIL SHALE WASTE NORTH
LANDFILL, CHINA
Maoming City is located in southeastern China
on the southwestern edge of the Maoming basin, a
northwest-southeast trending Tertiary fault-bounded
syncline 50 km long by about 10 km wide (Yuan and
Murray, 1993; Mitchell-Tapping, 1990). The basin
sediments are primarily Tertiary non-marine sand-
stones, siltstones, mudstones, oil shales, and lignites
that dip 5°–13° to the northeast or northwest. The
rocks within the basin are mantled by several meters
of Quaternary sand, gravel, silt, and clay. The faults
Figure 5. Maoming North landfill showing loca-
tions of leachate sampling points (W) and resistiv-
ity soundings (numbers). Maoming City is ap-
proximately 7 km to the south of W13. Leachate
sampling was conducted primarily in village wells,
although W11 represents leachate collected from a
seep at the base of the landfill mound.
bounding the basin trend northwest-southeast and date
from the Late Tertiary Himalayan tectonism.
From 1955 to 1995, oil shales within both the
Shangcun and Younganwo formations were mined
and retorted northwest of Maoming. The production of
petroleum and other distillates from the oil shale pro-
duced large volumes of waste rock after crushing and
retorting. An estimated 50 million tons of this waste
have been placed in two landfills that average about
6–8 km long, 1–2 km wide, and 5 to 6 m high. These
landfills lie on the Laohuling Formation, which con-
sists of approximately 450 m of Pliocene “quartz
sandstone, arkosic sandstone, mudstone, and clay”
(Yuan and Murray, 1993). The coarse particle size of
the tailings and fractures from the uneven settlement
of the waste has permitted rainwater to infiltrate the
waste pile. This water reacts with sulfides in the waste
rock, producing acidic leachate, which, in turn, has
mobilized various heavy metals, including mercury,
arsenic, lead, chromium, and manganese. These, along
with organic pollutants such as phenol and BTEX
compounds, have seeped through the corroded cement
liner beneath the landfill and contaminated nearby aq-
Apparent Formation Factor for Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments: Examples from the USA and China
uifers (Ding et al., 2003; Li and Tang, 1992).
Leachate has also seeped from the edges of the land-
fills and damaged adjacent rice fields (Li and Tang,
1992). Two major rivers, the Baisha and the Xingdong,
also pass within 1 km of the landfills. The south land-
fill is heavily vegetated and appears relatively stable.
Most present monitoring is focused now on the north
landfill (Fig. 5), which is larger, newer, less vegetated,
and adjacent to several villages dependent on
groundwater.
Resistivity Surveys
Initially, 2D resistivity surveys were attempted
perpendicular to the north landfill to map the edge of
the leachate plume in cross-section. Failure of the
multi-electrode resistivity system, however, prevented
the collection of 2D data. As an alternative, five re-
connaissance Schlumberger array resistivity soundings
and one constant-spacing resistivity profile were ob-
tained on and around the north landfill in November
2001, as shown in Fig. 5. The soundings were inverted
for layered resistivity models using ResixPlusTM (In-
terpex, 1988). Examples of inverted soundings are
shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Additional soundings may be
viewed in Carpenter et al. (2003).
Soundings 1a and 1b were made about 100 m
apart in a village about 600 m east of the north landfill
(a constant-spacing resistivity profile, not shown here,
was also made). The wells in this village are hand-dug
and generally shallower than 10 m. High conductivity
values and high groundwater turbidity have been
Figure 6. (a) Sounding 1a, east of the Maoming
North landfill; (b) sounding model with the water
table shown. The layer at the water table was used
to compute Fa.
613
Figure 7. (a) Sounding 2, collected in the village of
Tian’an, west of the landfill; (b) shows the layered
model inverted from the sounding. The low resis-
tivity layer between 5 and 8 m may contain a high
concentration of landfill leachate and may have
contaminated the shallower aquifer used to com-
pute Fa.
reported in some of these wells, although a chemical
analysis of the well water suggests that it is not con-
taminated by landfill leachate. Sounding 2 was made
in the village of Tianan, about 700 m southwest of the
north landfill. The village wells in Tianan are con-
taminated by landfill leachate. This sounding exhibits
a pronounced dip in apparent resistivity recorded be-
tween a spacing of about 5 and 30 m (Fig. 7). Sound-
ing 3 was made over the south-central portion of the
north landfill, just above the leachate seep sampled in
W11. Sounding 4 was made near the southern tip of
the landfill, near village well W13, whose pH value
also suggests leachate contamination. Groundwater
samples were obtained from all wells, corrected for
temperature, and resistivity computed. The laboratory
procedures used to obtain the conductivities and other
geochemical parameters are discussed in Ding et al.
(2007, 2003).
All sounding models showed distinctive drops in
resistivity at or near the water table depth. The resis-
tivity of the layer immediately below the water table
was then used to compute the Fa, since all the water
samples in the wells were collected just beneath the
water table. As in the case of soundings obtained at
Mallard North, an equivalence analysis was performed
on the layered resistivity model to obtain uncertainties
in resistivity, which were then used to estimate the
uncertainty in the Fa. Table 2 summarizes these re-
sults.
614 Philip J Carpenter, Ding Aizhong, Cheng Lirong, Liu Puxin and Chu Fulu

Table 2 Samples from the vicinity of the Maoming North landfill, China

Sample Sample Groundwater re- Number of near- Saturated layer Equivalence Apparent forma-
pH
location depth (m) sistivity (Ω·m) est sounding resistivity (Ω·m) range (Ω·m) tion factor (Fa)
W11* Surface 3.6 3.1 3 38 29–49 10.6±2.8
W13 3 18.0 5.9 4 70 54–90 3.9±1.0
W14 6 23.8 6.8 1a 40 15–80 1.7±1.2
W15 6 84.7 6.7 1b 317 289–343 3.7±0.3
W16 1 26.3 3.9 2 47 34–66 1.8±0.6

*Pure leachate.

DISCUSSION
Fa in Landfills
Formation factor is usually computed by plotting
the Fa vs. porosity and fitting a straight line to a set of
samples with widely varying porosity for a constant
salinity pore water (Worthington, 1993). This then al-
lows the Archie equation to be defined by the deter-
mination of the parameters a and m. In the field, when
core samples are unavailable for porosity determina-
tion, other means of estimating the Fa must be em-
ployed. For example, Aristodemou and Thomas-Betts
(2000) computed 1/Fa for several samples via resistiv-
ity inversion and then plotted them on a graph as a
function of fluid resistivity to estimate the intrinsic
formation factor and porosity. In this study, however,
the samples were too tightly clustered and did not ap-
pear to lie along linear trends when the Fa for all loca-
tions was plotted as a function of pore water resistivity
(ρw), as shown in Fig. 8. Instead, different Fa values
tend to fall into groups in different fields of the plot.
The Maoming North landfill plots in the upper
left of Fig. 8, probably due to the unique nature of the
waste (retorted oil-shale waste with some MSW and
liquid industrial waste). The Chicago-area landfills
with municipal or mixed-waste all lie in the lower left
corner of Fig. 8, with Fa<4 and ρw<10 Ω·m. The MSW
values for the Chicago-area landfills compare favora-
bly with other F values in the literature. For example,
Bouguerra et al. (1998) obtained formation factors
between 1.9 and 2.8 for clay-cement-wood aggregates
that were fully saturated. Ogilvy et al. (2002) reported
saturated waste resistivity values less than 15 Ω·m for
unconfined landfill waste with leachate resistivities
less than 5 Ω·m. This gives an Fa of about 3, which is
consistent with the values obtained in this study.
Figure 8. Plot of Fa vs. pore water resistivity for the
three sites in this study.
Electrical Current Flow in Landfills
Bernstone et al. (2000) noted that even in MSW
landfills containing significant metal and clay content,
moisture dominates electrical conductivity. Based on
the model of Li and Oldenburg (1991), they suggested
that the moisture in the waste results in “currents be-
ing channeled into regions of high conductivity and
deflected away from resistive regions. This deflection
means that the electric current in the waste will be not
only strongly controlled by the amount of salinity and
the pore electrolytes but also on the tortuosity of the
pore space and the proportion of dispersed conducting
waste”. They concluded that electrical surveys of
MSW landfills primarily provide information about
“leachate water pathways, fringing leachate pockets
and the level of saturated waste”. One could envision
in these cases large blocks of waste dissected by a
network of leachate channels that are also pathways
for electric current flow. Much of the porosity “seen”
by the electrical current in the waste would thus be
due to this macro porosity.
Apparent Formation Factor for Leachate-Saturated Waste and Sediments: Examples from the USA and China
Fa in Leachate-Contaminated Sediments
The Fa for sediments of the Laohuling Formation
are widely dispersed across the bottom half of Fig. 8.
The Fa from the contaminated Tianan well (W16) and
the somewhat low-pH well W13 are indicated. All of
the sediments exhibit Fa values less than 4, which is
rather low compared with clean sands (Hearst et al.,
2000). It is possible that clay or silt is present in sig-
nificant volumes in these sediments, leading to the
lower Fa values. Table 2 suggests that Fa cannot be
used to uniquely identify contaminated portions of aq-
uifers since the range of normal groundwater encom-
passes that of the leachate-contaminated Fa.
Future Work
Much work needs to be done to verify these rela-
tionships. The Maoming study is in its infancy, and
the data presented here are basically a reconnaissance
data set. Additional 1D and, especially, 2D data need
to be collected. Well logs are critically needed to in-
vestigate the change in electrical conductivity with
depth and obtain F values based on “ground truth” and
not inverted resistivity models. Natural gamma logs
would also provide some control on clay content. Fi-
nally, sounding locations that show the presence of
conductive zones at depth should be investigated fur-
ther, and new water supply wells should not be sited
in these areas.
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, apparent formation factors are
computed for three landfills with different types of
waste. Knowing the formation factor allows leachate
resistivity, degree of saturation, and, possibly, hydrau-
lic conductivity of the waste to be estimated from
non-invasive surface measurements. Sediments con-
taminated by landfill leachate were examined as well.
The resistivity of the leachate-saturated waste from
the Mallard North landfill (determined from resistivity
sounding inversions) divided by the leachate resistiv-
ity measured in-situ was used to compute apparent
formation factors (Fa) ranging from 1.6 to 4.9. A
global Fa of 3.0±1.9 was computed for the entire
monitored portion of this landfill. At a nearby mixed
laboratory waste landfill at the Argonne National
Laboratory, a 2D inverted resistivity section was used
615
to map shallow leachate accumulations and refuse re-
sistivities. An Fa of 2.9 was computed at this site. Fi-
nally, a distinctly different Fa value of 10.6±2.8 was
computed for leachate-saturated retorted oil shale
wastes north of Maoming, Guangdong Province,
China. Shallow aquifers in the Laohuling Formation
near this landfill are polluted by acidic leachate con-
taining heavy metals and organic compounds. The Fa
for aquifers containing contaminated groundwater
falls in the same range as aquifers with normal
groundwater, 1.7–3.9. Models from inverted sounding
curves over these contaminated areas, however, ex-
hibit unusually low resistivity layers, which may be
diagnostic of contamination.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 40873076), Science
& Technology Project of Guangdong Province
(2KM06506S), and the Environmental Protection Bu-
reau of Maoming for funding the Maoming work and
providing logistical support in the field. The Depart-
ment of Geology and Environmental Geosciences,
Graduate School, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
Northern Illinois University, and Argonne National
Laboratory provided support for the Mallard North
project and provided travel support to China during a
research sabbatical. We would also like to thank Mr.
Wang Li of the Maoming Environmental Protection
Bureau for his assistance in driving us to and from
Maoming and to the various field sites, some of which
were in extremely difficult locations.
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