Managing contact water—the water that comes in contact with waste—is a critical part of landfill operations. EMWMF has four tanks that hold this water. Each tank is 40 feet wide x 158 feet long x 6 feet deep, with a nominal working capacity of 240,000 gallons. Having been operating since 2011, these Contact Water Tanks (CWTs) started showing signs of their age.
The leak detection systems indicated there were concerns with the inner liners on CWT-B and CWT-D, although there has been no indication of leakage through the outer liner to the environment. These tanks were accordingly removed from service, and UCOR’s EMWMF Operations initiated steps to bring them back online. The EMWMF workforce removed the vegetation and pumped the solids into dewatering bins lined with filter bags, which retained the solids and allowed the water to drain back into the CWTs. The solids were then dewatered and placed into the landfill.
Following inspections and radiological surveys, the cleaned tanks were turned over to a restoration subcontractor, which replaced degraded portions of the structure and installed all new liner systems. The tanks were successfully leak tested this month and prepared for their return to service.
Congratulations to the team for overcoming several challenges to ensure this work was performed safely and efficiently. This work was performed without impacting waste disposal operations and other waste management functions. Much of this work was done while wearing PPE in very hot weather.
