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Day 1 (Monday, April 05, 2027)—Designing from the Bottom Up, Landfill Liners and Containment Systems
8:30—Welcome, Introductions, Key Concepts
• Evolving standard-of-practice, contaminants, risks, and opportunities
9:30—Keynote: Financial Management of a Solid Waste System [Welch]
• Solid waste economics
• Evolving revenue streams and value-added processes
10:45—Investigating Hydrogeologic Conditions and Groundwater Monitoring [Oelkers]
• Designing an investigation program
– Evolving contaminants
– Quality control
• Exploration methods
• Understanding soil and rock boring logs
• Laboratory testing
13:00—Borrow Source Investigations
• Properties of suitable liner/cover soil
• Compaction specifications and QA/QC
• Incorporating reasonable soil specifications
• Class activity
14:30—Base Grades and Liquid Management Systems, Two Parts
• Base grades
• Slopes and berming
• Phasing
• Leachate collection systems
– Drainage sand/stone
– Drainage geosynthetics
– Base grades and toe drains
• Geometrical design
• Leachate head calculations
15:45—Liquid Management Systems, Part 2
• Pipe network, cleanouts, pumps, and on-site storage
• Effects on solid waste management systems
• Dewatering system design and operation
• Economic analysis of dewatering system
17:00—Adjourn for Day
Day 2 (Tuesday, April 06, 2027)—Designing up through the Cover System
8:00—Geosynthetic Design for Containment Systems, Two Parts
• Polymers 101
• Geosynthetic types and functions
• Contaminant transport mechanisms
• Composite barrier systems and performance calculations
Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCLs)
• Types and styles of GCLs
• Compatibility with various types of leachate
• Advances in polymer-amended bentonite
9:45—Contaminant Flux and Leak Detection
• Key factors that affect the transport of contaminants through containment systems
• Calculations and perspectives of contaminant flux
• Liner integrity
• Electrical leak detection surveys
11:00— Final Covers for Waste Containment Systems
• Functions and types of cover systems
• Cover selection criteria
• Design of cover drainage
• Alternative covers, design and PET calculations
13:00— Black Goo
• What is this stuff?
• Visual, textural and olfactory characteristics
• How to remedy black goo problems
14:45— Elevated Temperature Landfills
• Chemical and physical indicators
• Management
• Odor control
16:00— Landfill Closures
• Final Closures
• Post-Closure Use Options
• Solar-on-Landfill
17:15—Adjourn for Day
Day 3 (Wednesday, April 07, 2027)—Cover Systems, Closures, Landfill Tour
8:00— Landfill Drainage, Stormwater Management, and Runoff Control
• Key runoff considerations
• Layout and sizing of stormwater management features
• Developing a stormwater model
9:30—Developing a Landfill Gas Management and Beneficial Recovery Plan
• High-BTU natural gas offsets
• Developing a solid waste biogas project
• BioCNG selection, design, and operation
• Financial considerations and clean fuel incentives
• Pipeline-grade high-BTU gas conversion
10:45—Sustainable Waste Management Campus
• Waste as a resource
• Innovative social hubs and business activity
• Space for recreation before, during, and after filling
12:45—Tour of Dane County Landfill
• Bus departs at 12:45
– UAV LFG Flight/Sensor Demonstration
– Trash Lab
– Clean Sweep
– Open Face
– High-BTU Conversion Facility
– C&D Recycling Facility
– Mobile LFG Sensor Platform
– Construction Activities
• Bus departs Landfill at 3:45
Day 4 (Thursday, April 08, 2027)—Operations and Evolving Risks/Opportunities
8:00—Gas Collection and Managing Air Emissions
• Sources of landfill air emissions
• Managing landfill air emissions
• Monitoring and controlling landfill gas migration
• Noxious/nuisance gas control
• Collection and header system design
10:45— Leachate Treatment, On Site and Off Site
· On Site Treatment Systems
· Considerations for the treatment of PFAS-impacted leachate
· Transport and treatment at Off-Site WWTP
13:00—Waste Relocations and Expansions
• Environmental, regulatory, legal, and economic drivers
• Health and safety considerations
• Geotechnical considerations
• Case studies
14:15—Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Containment Systems
• History and use
• Naming conventions and physical/chemical properties
• Environmental sources and sinks
• Regulation, guidance, and advisories
• Fate and transport in solid waste management residuals
• Liquids management and treatment
• Remediation technologies and treatment
15:30—Evolving Topics and Course Closure
Registration Date/Time:
4/5/2027 07:30am Central Time
Event Dates/Times:
- 4/5/2027 8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
- 4/6/2027 8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
- 4/7/2027 8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
- 4/8/2027 8:00am - 5:00pm Central Time
Course Location
Lodging
Accommodations include: Enjoy complimentary business center, WiFi and Local/Airport Shuttle. Each room has a refrigerator, microwave, 42-inch HDTV, and executive desk. Parking available $15/night.
Room: rates start at $160
Accommodations include: Complimentary WiFi, Local/Airport Shuttle, Pool, and Fitness Center.
Accommodations include: Your stay includes hot breakfast buffet, fitness center, business center, convenient on-site parking. Guest rooms are complete with Keurig coffee maker, refrigerator, complimentary high-speed Internet, and 40-inch, flat screen, high-def TVs.
Instructors
James Tinjum
Associate Professor
James M. Tinjum, PE, PhD, F.ASCE, is an Associate Professor and outgoing Director of the Geological Engineering Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Dr. Tinjum has 35 years of solid waste experience, beginning in 1990. Prior to his engagement as a faculty member at UW–Madison in 2008, he worked for 15 years in industry for prominent engineer-procure-construct firms and a Fortune 50 company. He has specialized technical knowledge in geoenvironmental and remediation engineering for landfills with industrial waste (lime kiln dust, cement kiln dust, foundry residuals, paper mill sludge, coal combustion residuals), municipal solid waste (particularly landfill liner and cover systems and the monitoring, recovery, and value-added use of landfill gases), and hazardous waste. He conducts research in waste geotechnics and waste containment systems; the beneficial reuse of industrial byproducts (e.g., for subgrade improvement and cementitious stabilization of pavement layers); life cycle environmental analysis of geo systems; remediation of contaminated sites; and fate and transport of landfill gas emissions. Dr. Tinjum developed these interests not only through industry practice and applied research, but also through discussions and interactions with practitioners participating in his nationally/internationally attended engineering short course programs. In applied practice, Dr. Tinjum has participated in nearly 100 solid waste projects.C. Lee Daigle
Client Manager
Lee Daigle is a registered professional engineer in civil engineering with 25 years of experience in the landfill gas industry. Mr. Daigle started his career as an intern at a municipal solid waste landfill in Colonie, New York while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While interning, he was fully immersed in the operations, maintenance, and construction of landfill gas collection and control systems, which instilled him with a passion for the industry. Upon graduation, Mr. Daigle continued to focus on landfill gas and expanded his expertise in landfill gas utilization feasibility assessment, design, regulatory compliance, construction, and operations. Mr. Daigle has worked on landfill gas collection systems in over 30 states/territories, three Canadian provinces, and several countries abroad. He has been responsible for the initial start-up and monitoring of collection and control systems and has performed data analysis and interpretation to assist in optimizing overall landfill gas system performance. He also performed construction management and construction quality assurance (CQA) services during the installation of numerous landfill gas extraction and treatment systems, giving him a strong understanding of the construction issues associated with the implementation of cost-effective landfill gas system designs. Since 2011, Mr. Daigle has expanded his practice into all areas of solid waste design including the design and permitting of municipal solid waste cells and closures. Recently, Mr. Daigle has been elected to the Solid Waste Association of North America's Board of Directors, Wisconsin Badger Chapter and currently serves as Vice President of the board.
Amanda Wade
Amanda Wade is a Solid Waste Program Manager for TRC. She is an expert in state and federal requirements for solid waste management including landfill design, construction, and operations as well as general solid waste permitting criteria. Spanning over 24 years, she has overseen and/or designed numerous solid waste liner and closure projects ranging in complexity from rural municipal landfills to papermill landfills and ultimately to large-scale commercial facilities. She has also permitted numerous solar-on-landfill projects in Massachusetts. Amanda spent the first 15 years of her career with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) as a member of the Solid Waste Engineering Unit. Since leaving the MDEP, she has worked as a consultant, managing, and serving as the Engineer of Record for numerous solid waste facilities throughout New England. She currently serves as President for the Northern New England Chapter of SWANA and is Vice Chair of the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC) Solid Waste Management Committee.
John Welch
Recycling / Project Manager
John Welch, PE, Director of Waste and Renewables, Dane County, Madison, WI. John is an experienced Owner/Manager with a demonstrated history of achieving positive results in the solid waste industry. John is skilled in management and operation of landfills, HHW facilities, transfer stations, C&D MRFs, and biogas facilities. John is a licensed Professional Engineer with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Betsy Powers
Senior Project Manager/Civil Engineer
Betsy Powers, PE
Vice President/Civil Engineer
Betsy Powers, PE, is a civil and environmental engineer with more than 26 years of consulting experience. She has extensive experience in the design, permitting, and construction of municipal and industrial solid waste landfills. Her expertise includes site design, layout, and permitting; storm water management; and construction oversight and documentation. Ms. Powers has worked on solid waste projects in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan.ERic Oelkers
Eric Oelkers, PG, is a hydrogeologist with more than 33 years’ experience managing hydrogeologic investigations at contaminated industrial sites, petroleum storage facilities, Superfund sites, and disposal facilities. He has designed and/or implemented soil and groundwater investigations in fill materials, glacial and alluvial sediments, and fractured bedrock aquifers. He has supervised drilling, excavation, and other remediation at a variety of industrial sites and solid waste facilities. Mr. Oelkers has directed immediate response and cleanup actions for spills of petroleum and industrial chemicals from 5 to 20,000+ gallons. Mr. Oelkers has also worked on regional aquifer characterization and modeling projects for landfill permit applications and high-capacity water wells.Orhun Aydin
Assistant Professor
Orhun Aydin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Computer Science (by courtesy) at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on spatial machine learning (GeoAI) and geospatial sensor networks for computational sustainability and resilience. He uses a variety of Earth observations, in-situ measurements, physical process models, and spatially-explicit artificial intelligence (now broadly known as GeoAI) to answer questions pertinent to sustainable development goals (SDGs) and resilient geodesign. He is particularly interested in spatial game theory, prescriptive learning, spatial optimization for disaster response, big geospatial data analysis, and graph-based representations of spatial data. In addition to GeoAI methods, he works on designing, developing, manufacturing, and installing low-cost geospatial sensor IoT networks for problems where limited or no data exists. If installing sensors is not feasible, he flies them on uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). He operates multiple medium and heavy-lift UAVs in his lab and is a licensed drone pilot.
Prior to joining SLU, he served as a research scientist and lead product engineer for the Spatial Statistics and R-ArcGIS Bridge teams at Esri, respectively. He worked on applied and theoretical research in spatial and spatio-temporal machine learning methods, their implementations in the ArcGIS platform, and applications to climate change-related problems. He holds a Masters and a PhD in Geostatistics from Stanford University and a Master's in Computer Science from Georgia Tech.Craig Benson
Dean of Engineering Emeritus
Craig H. Benson, PhD, PE, NAE, is Wisconsin Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Dean of Engineering Emeritus at the University of Virginia. Benson is a geoenvironmental engineer with deep expertise in waste management, waste containment systems, recycling and beneficial reuse, and sustainability. He has been conducting research related to the protection of the environment for more than three decades, with a primary focus on environmental containment of solid, hazardous, radioactive, and mining wastes; beneficial use of industrial byproducts; and sustainable infrastructure. He is recognized as a foremost international authority on waste containment systems and is widely sought after for his expertise in design, operation, and performance assessment of waste disposal facilities. Benson’s research experience involves laboratory studies, large-scale field experiments, and computer modeling. Benson is a registered professional engineer, board-certified environmental engineer, board-certified geotechnical engineer, and member of the US National Academy of Engineering.Program Director
Dave Peterson