Landfill covers systems are designed to isolate contaminants from the environment for hundreds to thousands of years. In the long term, however, the landfill covers are susceptible to failure caused by physical, chemical and biological effects. Plant intrusion is a major concern of landfill sustainability; the roots of plants have been found to increase the soil hydraulic conductivity by two orders of magnitude. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of plant intrusion and the resulting increase in the saturated hydraulic conductivity on the water balance of landfill cover systems. The finite element software model HYDRUS-1D was used to simulate water flux and root water uptake processes. Plant growth effects on the Burrell, Pennsylvania, uranium mill tailings site were evaluated as a case study. Additionally, a comparison of the water balance and effects of plant growth for different landfill cover designs (RCRA Subtitle C, RCRA Subtitle D and evapotranspiration covers) was performed. For each of the cases, different precipitation events were used to simulate arid and humid conditions. The plant roots effectively reduced the water content in the landfill cover systems, and it was concluded that vegetation should not be eliminated once established.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-04012005-124444 |
| Date | 08 April 2005 |
| Creators | Williams, Linda Leeann |
| Contributors | Florence Sanchez, James H. Clarke |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04012005-124444/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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