UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROLLING LANDFILL FIRES

Characterizing a Fire

Fuel Availability:

Solid waste is a high-energy content fuel.  Municipal waste typically contains 10 to 17 GJ of energy per tonne (4,000 to 7,000 BTU per lb) while DLC contains 15 GJ/tonne (6,500 BTU per lb).  Subtitle D regulations and economics of scale have resulted in a trend to regional and super regional landfills.  With landfills smaller than one million tonnes of refuse in place being the exception, and many landfills exceeding 10 million tonnes, this trend has increased the amount of fuel available to feed fires.    To put the energy content in perspective, the City of Vancouver Landfill, which at 12 million tonnes of refuse in place is not large by U.S. Standards, contains 200 million GJ of energy, equivalent to more than 6 billion litres of gasoline, enough energy to meet all of Vancouver’s electrical power demands for more than six years.

In the Pacific Northwest, large super-regional landfills have been developed at Cache Creek in British Columbia (WasteTech), Arlington Oregon (Columbia Ridge) and Roosevelt, Washington (Roosevelt Regional Landfill).  With the trend toward large dry-tomb landfills situated in desert climates to minimize leachate impacts, the risk of a major landfill fire spreading quickly is steadily growing.

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