GGIS No 3 – Screening approach for landfill gas migration around landfill sites

ABSTRACT

Landfill gas migration risk may need to be considered when dealing with planning applications for new building development close to landfill sites, for Part IIA assessments of landfill sites, or when considering the surrender of environmental permits.

Installing monitoring wells outside the site in areas close to receptors or completing other monitoring (e.g. internal monitoring) can be difficult, costly and cause unnecessary stress to nearby residents. It may also result in blight on properties.

This paper describes a risk based framework that can be used to screen the landfill gas migration risk around old landfills. It was developed for a Scottish Local Authority to help them reduce the size of planning consultation zones and has also been applied successfully on a number of sites in England to identify whether gas extraction systems in old landfills are still required.

September 5, 2018