Sanitary Landfill Site Selection

Criteria for Selection of Land fill Site

Landfill site for solid wastes should be selected on following criteria:

• Land area and volume should be sufficient enough to provide landfill capacity so that the projected need can be fulfilled for several years. In this way the cost coming on all that procedure can be justified.
• The landfill site should not be at locations where suitable buffer zones between land fill site and population are not available.
• The landfill area having steep gradient (where stability of slope could be problematic) should not be selected.
• The water level in ground water table should be sufficient below the base of any excavation to enable landfill development.
• The land which is significant environmentally (lands of biodiversity); the sensitive ecological area of such a land should be present within potential area of landfill site.
• Public & private irrigation water supply wells should be well away from the boundaries of landfill site because these supply wells will be at risk of contamination.
• Landfill area should not be very close to significant water bodies (water courses or dams). There will be the risk of contamination of water bodies, which can be hazardous for aquatic life.
• No major power transmission or other infrastructure like sewers, water supply lines should be crossing through landfill developmental area.

• No residential development should be near the boundaries of landfill site. The waste disposal site must be very away from residential or commercial areas and water resources.
• Landscaping and protective shelf should be included in the design so that to minimize the visibility of operations.
• Unstable areas that have significant seismic risk which could cause destruction of berms are not recommended for landfill site.
• There should not be fault lines and significantly fractured geological structure. These fault lines can allow the unpredictable movement of gas within 500 meters of perimeter of proposed landfill development.
• Groundwater quality should not be disturbed during the site developmental phase. There should be monitoring facilities at site in order to ensure that ground water quality is maintained.
• In areas under the laws of concerned municipality it should be responsibility of municipality to identify landfill site and handover to operators for operations.
• Selection of landfill site should be based upon the examination of environmental issues.
• The landfill site should be near the wastes recycling facility otherwise, the waste recycling facility should be planned as integral part of landfill site.
• Biomedical wastes should be disposed off in accordance with guidelines issued by Ministry Of Health, Government of Pakistan.

Landfill site should be away from airports. There is need of approval of airbase authorities like civil aviation authorities of government of Pakistan for setting up of landfill site in case if site is to be locating within ten kilometer of an airport boundary.