REVIEW OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ON-SITE CONVENTIONAL AND ADVANCED LEACHATE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES

REVIEW OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ON-SITE CONVENTIONAL AND ADVANCED LEACHATE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES


INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
The Crown has determined that any intellectual property arising from the performance of the Work under the Contract will vest in Canada, on the following grounds: 

6.4  Where the main purpose of the Crown Procurement Contract, or of the deliverables contracted for, is:

6.4.1 To generate knowledge and information for public dissemination.


PURPOSE

The purpose of this review is to assess conventional and advanced on-site landfill leachate treatment technologies in order to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing concentrations of selected chemical substances in leachate.  This review should also include information on whether these technologies can be applied cost-effectively within Canada. 

BACKGROUND

A diversity of chemical substances is contained in consumer products that are disposed in landfills.  The potential exists for these substances to partition to landfill leachate. As part of the monitoring program under the Chemicals Management Plan (CMP), leachate, from a number of Canadian municipal solid waste landfills, has been sampled and analyzed for various substances of concern. The landfill leachate monitoring program has confirmed the presence of chemical substances in leachate and the potential for landfill leachate to contribute the chemical substances contained in consumer products to the environment.

There is also global knowledge that landfills are a potential point source of pollution. International conventions, such as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal recognizes potential for environmental and health problems associated with releases from landfills. Technical guidelines have been adopted pertaining to the need for landfills to have adequate controls. 

Currently in Canada, approximately 87% of landfill leachate is sent directly to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for treatment while approximately 7% of Canadian landfills treat leachate on-site using a variety of technologies. Although effective in treating a variety of substances, WWTPs and conventional on-site treatment systems may not be effective in removing certain chemical substances including Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).  

EC conducted a landfill baseline study in 2009 that provided an overview of the current (2007) understanding of Canadian landfills, including leachate collection and management and associated costs.  The report listed several conventional treatments, in use in Canada that include:

- Extended aeration
- Sedimentation or settling lagoons
- Biological removal of nutrients or sequential biological reactors (SBR)
- Chemical precipitation
- Ultraviolet reactors
- Sand biofilters or re-circulating sand filters (RSF)
 
Advanced leachate treatment technologies have been developed and are currently in use although it appears that these technologies are used more frequently in European countries. Their effectiveness in treating substances may vary and some may be sensitive to a range of conditions to treat selected substances.  Examples of such technologies include:

-Activated carbon filters/Granular activated carbon (GAC)
-Reverse osmosis
-Photochemical oxidation
-Thermally induced reduction
-Nanofiltration

Environment Canada is seeking to increase its knowledge of the effectiveness of different landfill leachate treatment technologies in order to inform potential future risk management activities.


OBJECTIVES

General 

	To conduct a comparison of existing conventional and advanced on-site landfill leachate treatment systems currently used and evaluate their effectiveness in reducing selected substances. 

	To document costs of advanced on-site leachate technologies, the use of conventional technologies in Canada and other costs of treating leachate off-site in Canada.

	To identify existing guidelines and legal requirements in place in North America and Europe, specifying the use of advanced on-site leachate treatment technologies.

	To identify other qualitative benefits of advanced leachate treatment technologies and comment on the feasibility of using these technologies within a Canadian context given climatic limitations.



The substances selected for this study are:
Substances	Purpose for inclusion in review
Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs)
	- PPCPs are emerging chemicals of concern that may not be effectively treated by conventional means
- PPCPs monitored by Health Canada's Environmental Impact Initiative (EII)  
Bisphenol- A (BPA)
	-Found in high concentrations in leachate above PNEC
-High priority CMP substance (Batch 2 of Challenge) 
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)
	-Found in over 90% of all samples of leachate
-POP and CMP legacy substance (CEPA toxic)
Perfluorinated chemicals PFCs, including PFOS
	-Found in leachate and studies indicate increases in concentration post-treatment
-POP substance 
-CEPA toxic legacy substance
 

Methodology

Information collection should include literature reviews of scientific articles, grey literature, review of available on-line information or waste-management publications showcasing landfills or companies currently employing advanced technologies, interviews with landfill owners/operators and subject experts concerning their experience with and knowledge of the effectiveness of advanced technologies. 



STATEMENT OF WORK

1.	Identify and describe existing conventional on-site landfill leachate treatment technologies in use (primary, secondary and tertiary) in Canada and the United States including the conditions and scale of operation. Describe how each technology operates and present information on their removal efficiencies for the selected substances. Information on capital and operational costs should be included, where available. A summary of removal efficiencies achievable by each technology, for the selected substances, should be provided in table format. 

2.	Identify and describe advanced landfill leachate treatment technologies currently in use for three years or more specifically in North America and Europe. Describe how each technology operates and present information on their removal efficiencies for the selected substances. Information on capital and operational costs should be included, where available. Associated data including pre and post-treatment sampling results for the selected substances should be included in an appendix of the report, if available.

3.	Identify and briefly describe any emerging advanced technologies, not currently in full –scale use, which have been developed to address the selected substances. 

4.	Provide a brief comparison of costs in Canada associated with:
a.	on-site conventional leachate treatment
b.	the cost of storage, transportation and associated fees for sending leachate to WWTPs in Canada and
c.	the cost of using an on-site advanced technology. 

5.	Describe any guidelines, standards, regulatory or permitting frameworks within North America and Europe that require the use of advanced on-site leachate treatment technologies.   

6.	Provide a brief description of the qualitative benefits of using advanced technologies including benefits to downstream treatment facilities (WWTPs) and benefits to environmental and human health. For example, include the potential reduction of contaminant loadings to biosolids via treatment by WWTPs (which are then applied on land).

7.	Provide a summary of all findings including what technologies are most effective in addressing the substances of concern; identify gaps in information and potential recommendations for future research.  


PROJECT TEAM
The project team should have knowledge of or direct experience with on-site landfill leachate technologies, an awareness of advanced technologies, have effective research skills and an understanding of chemical processes to be able to describe the effectiveness of a treatment type.  The project team is encouraged to draw on outside experts when needed. 



PROJECT DELIVERABLES

The deliverables for this project will be a draft report, a revised draft and a final report of all required information. 

1.	The draft report will include all information and content as required by the Statement of Work items 1 -7. Upon completion, delivery and acceptance Environment Canada will provide comments and suggestions to the contractor which are to be incorporated into the revised draft report.

2.	The revised draft report which incorporates the  comments and suggestions provided by Environment Canada in response to Deliverable 1 – The draft report.. Upon completion, delivery and acceptance Environment Canada will provide comments and suggestions to the contractor which are to be incorprated into the final report.

3.	The final report will include the all the information detailed above for the revised draft report, and will incorporate and respond to the  comments made by Environment Canada in reponse to Deliverable 2 – The revised draft report.  The successful Contractor will provide the final report as electronic files in Microsoft® Word and Microsoft® Excel.  The Contractor will also provide electronic versions in Portable Digital Format (PDF), as well as three (3) bound hard copies of each.