Landfill site requirements on the rock environment: A case study

The objectives of the study are to improve the standard of waste disposal and to provide guidelines for an environmentally acceptable waste disposal strategy in the biggest city of the eastern Black Sea region (NE Turkey). The requirements for waste disposal by landfill were investigated in three important stages: site selection (SS), engineering geological investigation (EGI) and finally site evaluation (SE). Because one of the serious and increasing potential problems in the growing urban regions is the shortage of land for waste disposal, the candidate sites for an appropriate landfill area in the major city of the region were determined by using the integration of spatial and multi-criteria decision analysis based methodology. Due to the fact that the main issue in this investigation is description of engineering suitability of the rock masses exposed at the proposed landfill site, the rock properties to be required for landfill construction and design were identified as a priority, and finally drainage and filtration materials, leachate collector system, covering and gas venting system were proposed. For these purposes, the borehole applications, in-situ and laboratory tests, scan-line and seismic surveys were conducted to characterize the engineering properties of the rock masses exposed at the proposed landfill site, and the Lugeon tests were applied to determine bedrock permeability. The methodology defined in the study proves to be an appropriate method for site selection, design and construction process in sustainable solid waste management program for other growing urban regions in the country.