Effects of refuse dumps on ground water quality / California State Water Pollution Control Board.

  • California. State Water Quality Control Board
Date:
1961
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Effects of refuse dumps on ground water quality / California State Water Pollution Control Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/124 page 1
    This report has been prepared by Engineering-Science, Inc., in accordance with the terms of Standard Agreement 12-19 of the California State Water Pollution Control Board. As a result of the rapid population growth of metropolitan Los Angeles and the increasing urbanization of outlying areas, it has become increasingly difficult to find suitable convenient locations for land refuse disposal. The problem has further been aggravated by the abolition of all household inciner- ation as a measure to control air pollution. Consequently the possibility of using spent sand and gravel pits, of which there are a considerable number in the San Cabriel and San Fernando valleys, has.received more and more seri- ous consideration, Because of the permeable nature of the ground in the gravel pit regions, and because many of the pits have been excavated below the ground water table, there has been just apprehension concerning the pos- sible pollution of the ground water should any uncontrolled dumping of refuse be permitted. The availability of close-in refuse disposal sites is evidently in the public interest, just as is a ground water supply unimpaired from its natural condition. Further, the empty gravel pits are worthless eyesores, whereas filled with refuse or any other material, their surfaces wou.d become available for recreational, industrial, parking, and other useful purposes. There isa clear need for technical information which could be used to determine under what circumstances the disposal of refuse into gravelly areas will not constitute a menace to the ground water quality. Objectives The principal objective of the report was to organize and review the available information concerning the effects of refuse fills on the quality of the adjacent ground water. The technical information lacking for a satisfactory understanding of how to make use of gravel pits for refuse disposal without ground water degradation was thus made apparent, and a research program designed to furnish the missing facts was recommended, Specific objectives of the report, as expressed by the State Water Pollution Control Board in Standard Agreement 12-19, were the following: 1, Assemble and collect all available information from publications and from such public and private reports that may be obtained. 2, Analyze any available data relative to changes in composition of gases in the soil atmosphere and their movement through the ground and their absorption into ground water.
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