Hydraulic conductivity of contaminated natural clay directly below a domestic landfill

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Abstract
The hydraulic conductivity of natural clays in the 1.5 m contamination zone below a 15 year old domestic waste landfill has been determined.Water-soluble contaminants such as chloride, sodium, and dissolved organic carbon have migrated about 1.0 m compared with only 15 cm for copper, zinc, iron, lead, and manganese. The migration, primarily by diffusion, has rendered the clay perfect for assessment of clay–leachate compatibility with respect to hydraulic conductivity, k.Oedometer tests on tube samples of the clay yielded k values of 1.4 × 10−8 cm/s with a slight decrease to about 1 × 10−8 cm/s in the upper 20 cm of clay at the waste–clay interface. Direct measurement of k on "undisturbed" tube samples, reconsolidated to their field stress state and permeated with pore fluid squeezed from adjacent contaminated samples, yielded values of 1.5 × 10−8 cm/s at 1 m depth decreasing to 0.75 × 10−8 cm/s at the interface.The decrease in k near the interface seems to correlate directly with increased pollutant concentration of soluble species, total heavy metal concentration, and a slight decrease in void ratio. The changes in k are so small, however, that for the test leachates and undisturbed test soils at this domestic waste site, it is concluded that the hydraulic conductivity has not changed significantly as a result of contamination. Key words: domestic waste, leachate, hydraulic conductivity, clay barriers, compatibility.

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