The group (Rob, Amber, Ryan, Josh, and Justin) entered
the Unity Landfill to observe possible problems for their Geology of Environmental
Problems class at Unity College. One of the first necessities of a landfill
is the drainage of water any change in pitch of a ditch will pool and cause
water to infiltrate underground
| The erosion of material from under the mats of grass caused a huge gully the depth of 6-7 feet vertically, 35 feet longitudinally and 20 or more horizontally. Rob and Amber stood at two positions in order to represent the size of the area. |
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The end of the gully is the section where most of the water is channeled to from the top of the landfill. Round rocks were placed to reduce the effect of the outlet. These round rocks are not the best shapes for remaining over time immovable, rip rap or square rocks do not roll and water does not flow under and push them .
Where the rocks were positioned initially is where a spring of Iron seepage from under the edge of a mat of grass was noticed. The source is probably natural due to its location in relation to the landfill. The orange and silver appearance is obvious in the picture.
The area's perimeter has sections of silt fence in order
to reduce the sediment getting into a near-by brook. This brook is not
more than 200 feet from the landfill, and feeds into Sandy Stream. When
we went down to the silt fence the material from the gully washed the silt
fence down and covered a vast range.
| On the opposite corner a huge area of cattails are growing
(The distance is represented by four of us standing apart). A problem because
the roots and growth may penetrate the liner.
When we observed the cause of this growth it appeared that a section of ground had collapsed and caused a region of seepage. This was bubbling and coming out as we were taking pictures. The area was 10 feet by 6 feet and permeated from almost the whole section. |
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