Landfill Operation and Closure
City of Fez, Morocco
Project Description:
Edgeboro International, Inc. was awarded the contract for closing an existing 20 year old landfill for the City of Fez.
The existing landfill required major reconstruction in order to bring the facility within safe working conditions for personnel and equipment. Years of improper operation left the landfill with numerous open methane fires throughout the site and clouds of hazardous smoke that covered the site and traveled to the nearby town. Waste was piled 40 to 60 ft high that created unstable edges around the perimeter of the landfill. Lack of daily covering activities, and no leachate collection and disposal system, resulted in rotting and exposed waste and an environmental nightmare.
Approach:
The landfill was regraded and operated as a sanitary landfill. Daily cover along with the incoming daily waste was used to regrade the facility and extinguish the methane fires. The final grade design will allow for the proper capping of the facility when closed. A surface water diversion channel has been constructed to reroute an existing stream away from the landfill, thereby eliminating the contamination with the leachate from the landfill. A clay cap will ultimately be installed to close and seal the landfill from further contaminating surface runoff and groundwater contamination.
Note: The Fez Landfill will be the first environmentally controlled landfill closure project for Morocco and North Africa.