Autumn Hills Recycling and Disposal Facility is hoping for a Deep Injection Well to be a long-term solution to management of landfill leachate, which is in the early stages of gaining approval for its construction. The proposed well would inject the non-hazardous liquids more than a mile below the ground at the Autumn Hills 700 56th Ave. location.
The Autumn Hills facility receives an average waste volume of 1,800 tons per day, and the remaining site life is expected to be more than 50 years. The proposed well would be permitted to dispose of approximately 40 gallons of leachate per minute, with the ability to dispose of up to 150 gallons per minute if required.
Owned by Waste Management of Michigan, the site is overseen by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Currently, SET Environmental, Inc. transports the leachate from Autumn Hills to the City of Grand Rapids Wastewater Treatment Facility where it is treated and processed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identifies this type of well as a “Class I Injection Well for non-hazardous waste disposal.” As of 2017, there were a total of 32 Class I injection wells installed throughout Michigan, according to EPA inventory.
The well will operate by injecting non-hazardous landfill leachate into the deep formation through a 4.5-inch, continuous steel tubing, which travels through the center of two layers of concrete and steel protective casing keyed into the isolating rock formations. The waste solution would become sealed in the injection zone 6,000 feet beneath the ground, much like how oil and gas deposits are trapped for millions of years. Over time, the waste solution would mix with saline solutions naturally occurring at that level.
Read the full story at http://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20180715/autumn-hills-seeking-deep-injection-well-for-long-term-management-of-leachate.