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Coal Combustion Waste Management at - DOE - Fossil Energy ...

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34<br />

FIGURE 4 Liner Types Reported for Surface Impoundments<br />

The 1999 RTC c<strong>at</strong>egorized liner types differently than does this study, so direct<br />

comparisons are not possible. Nonetheless, it appears th<strong>at</strong> liner m<strong>at</strong>erials and types have<br />

improved since 1994. For example, the 1999 RTC reported th<strong>at</strong> 43% of the landfills and 74% of<br />

the surface impoundments constructed between 1985 and 1995 had no liners or soil-only liners.<br />

Since 1994, only one landfill (less than 3%) was constructed without a liner (and only because<br />

the St<strong>at</strong>e within which the landfill is loc<strong>at</strong>ed has classified the waste-managed bottom ash as<br />

inert). All of the surface impoundments reported a liner other than compacted in situ soil. While<br />

about 9% of the units in the 1999 RTC used compacted ash, no units used solely compacted ash<br />

since 1994. The percentage of clay liners remained about the same or decreased slightly, to about<br />

29% for landfills and 17% for surface impoundments. The percentage of double liners increased<br />

slightly for landfills, from 1% to 5%. Finally, the percentage of combin<strong>at</strong>ion and multiple liners<br />

increased for landfills, from less than 10% in the 1999 RTC to more than 50% in the newly<br />

constructed/expanded units. For impoundments, the percentage of combin<strong>at</strong>ion/multiple liners<br />

increased from 2% to more than 50% since 1994.<br />

3.1.7 Groundw<strong>at</strong>er Monitoring<br />

The vast majority (91%) of the 56 identified newly constructed or expanded units<br />

(landfills and surface impoundments) monitor groundw<strong>at</strong>er. All but one of the 38 landfills (97%)<br />

conduct groundw<strong>at</strong>er monitoring, and because this landfill manages only bottom-ash waste,<br />

which the St<strong>at</strong>e has classified as inert, groundw<strong>at</strong>er monitoring is not required. Of the 18 surface<br />

impoundments, 14, or 78%, monitor groundw<strong>at</strong>er. 17 Table 14 shows the percentage of identified<br />

17 Two surface impoundments th<strong>at</strong> were not surveyed—and, therefore, are not included in Section 3.1.5.2, which<br />

addressed only the 45 surveyed units (29 landfills and 16 surface impoundments)—reported groundw<strong>at</strong>er<br />

monitoring. Thus, of the total 18 identified surface impoundments (surveyed and nonsurveyed), 14 conduct<br />

groundw<strong>at</strong>er monitoring.

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