Landfill Engineering

Tetra Tech designs innovative waste transfer, recycling, and disposal facilities; organics management, conversion, and reuse facilities; and solid waste facility infrastructure.

Tetra Tech incorporates innovative elements into solid waste facility designs to maximize space and optimize the location and configuration of site features, while preserving space for future facilities, including:

Using mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) berms to increase landfill capacity and extend landfill life
Incorporating recirculation and backwash provision into leachate collection sumps to extend operating life and address fouling of the leachate collection sumps
Using exposed geomembrane covers for reduced cover expense, enhanced stormwater control, and minimization of leachate generation
Extensively using geosynthetic materials in lieu of natural clay soils and aggregates

We provide comprehensive solid waste facility planning, permitting, design, construction, operations, monitoring, maintenance, and closure.

Design

Effective solid waste facility design requires a unique blend of skills in civil, geotechnical, environmental, mechanical, structural, and landfill gas engineering. Engineering News-Record magazine ranks Tetra Tech as one of the top three solid waste engineering firms in the United States. We integrate our clients’ functional needs with a site’s physical resources and challenges. Our designs optimize capacity, minimize construction and permitting costs, and streamline operations.

Tetra Tech mitigated a large landslide complex impacting the ongoing development of the County of Orange’s Frank R. Bowerman Landfill. We addressed design issues related to overall soils management, interim and permanent slope stability, and impacts to onsite drainage facilities, natural drainage courses, and erosion control.

For the landfill expansion project at Sussex County Landfill in Lafayette, New Jersey, we incorporated the first MSE berm to be constructed in New Jersey. Landfill design features like the MSE berm, together with 10 acres of exposed geomembrane cap (EGC) to reduce leachate generation and enhance landfill gas capture, helped extend site life by 40 years.

At Moose Creek Landfill in Ontario, Canada, Tetra Tech successfully assessed landfill cover options to limit the leachate generation and avoid major investments for the upgrade of the leachate treatment facility. We also worked on different containment berm options to reduce construction time and ensure continuity of landfilling operations, which was critical under wet and cold climate conditions.

Landfill gas collection and control system design
Waste disposal cell design
Final cover and closure design
Design peer review

Engineering News-Record magazine ranks Tetra Tech as one of the top three solid waste engineering firms in the United States.

Landfill Engineering

Tetra Tech is a recognized leader in solid waste facility engineering and design. We have the experienced personnel to provide a broad range of landfill engineering services and can efficiently function as an extension of a client’s engineering and planning staff, providing support resources in specific areas as needed.

Environmental characterization
Siting and environmental clearances
Master planning and end-use planning
Plan of operations
Landfill expansion, optimization, and redevelopment
Surveying

Environmental Controls

Tetra Tech’s solid waste engineers integrate stormwater and surface water management with leachate reduction and management plans. Our environmental control expertise ranges from the simple management of on-site stormwater runoff to regional floodplain management studies.

Leachate management and pumping systems
Leachate treatment
Stormwater pollution control
Grading, drainage, and erosion control plans
Drainage structures and detention basins

Civil Infrastructure

Tetra Tech has more than 30 years of experience providing services for civil infrastructure at solid waste facilities. We can assist in the development of all phases of a solid waste facility design—from the incorporation of civil infrastructure in initial site layout and permitting to modifications and retrofits on existing facilities.

Administrative and maintenance buildings
Roadways and utilities
Scale houses
Automation

Geotechnical Engineering

We provide full service geotechnical engineering services, including subsurface explorations (test borings), geotechnical engineering evaluations, and geotechnical and foundation design recommendations. Our work ranges from limited soil depth surveys to complete subsurface exploration and extensive geophysical investigations.