Subsurface geology of Louisiana hazardous waste landfills: A case study

Abstract

Many hazardous waste sites in the south Louisiana Gulf Coast have been emplaced in sediments of Plio-Pleistocene to Recent age. Because of the fining upward nature of these regressive-transgressive fluvial-deltaic sequences and the purported confining capabilities of the shallow clay layers within them, this area would seem to be ideal for the location of surface waste landfills. However, detailed geologic mapping at a site in southeastern Louisiana documents how the three-dimensional distribution of sediment types and early diagenetic features, both of which were ultimately controlled by depositional history, can increase effective vertical permeability of finegrained sequences. Many bodies of sand that appear to be isolated in standard geotechnical cross sections can be shown to be part of spatially complex three-dimensional distributary networks, with fine-grained sediments representing overbank and backswamp deposits. Some clay layers are actually a composite of thinner clay beds, each subjected to subaerial exposure and the development of secondary porosity related to soil formation. There has been documented leakage of wastes down through the clays, and a recent study indicates that the effective vertical hydraulic conductivity of the clay layers exceeds 10−5 cm s−1, or from one to four orders of magnitude higher than values measured on samples from cores of the same sediment. An understanding of the depositional framework, facies architecture, and diagenetic history of geologic materials underlying waste disposal sites in Louisiana is required for rational development of monitoring and remediation plans.