Investigation and Feasibility of Reclamation and Remediation of Old and Abandoned Landfills (Case study: Babaheydar Landfill)

One of the problems in the old landfills in the world is the side environmental pollution. Babaheydar landfill is in the vicinity of the Babaheydar’s dam reservoir and located three kilometers away from the city of the same name in the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province and municipal solid waste of Babaheydar city and some surrounding villages is being imported and dumped to this landfill. Since one of the main objectives of Babaheydar’s dam is supplying drinking water and the presence of these landfill can contaminate the dam reservoir water. Therefore, in this study existing methods for facing with this type of landfills was investigating technically, economically and environmentally.

In order to select the best option for facing with the landfill, at first, all of the available methods were studied. Then feasible methods such as landfill capping, landfill mining, treatment with soil washing and subsurface cut-off walls were investigated.

Comparison results according to technical, economic and environmental aspects show that soil washing technique in terms of technology and need for special equipment, specialized management, need for water, materials and chemicals, investment and management costs require specific conditions that make the implementation of this method difficult. In opposite, excavation and transfer to a new landfill in terms of above parameters has most potential to execute. The methods of landfill capping and enclosing with subsurface cut-off walls are between two mentioned methods.

With investigation, feasibility and Comparison of potential executable methods for reclamation and remediation of landfill, it was found that the method of excavation and transfer to a new landfill compared to other methods is more suitable technically, economically and environmentally. Thus, applying of this method is recommended for Babaheydar landfill.