N.Y. State Proposes Lower Minimum Thickness for Landfill PVC

New York state is proposing a change to the state?EUR??,,????'???s solid waste management regulations to allow the use of 30-mil PVC geomembranes in municipal landfill closures. It would also require the PVC field seams be thermal fusion welded.

Allowing 30-mil thickness PVC not only gives the landfill designer more latitude in specifying geomembranes in landfill closures, but, according to Robert Phaneuf, chief, hazardous waste engineer for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, it would encourage use of alternate field seam testing methods, such as the recently developed air channel testing of thermally welded PVC field seams that minimizes the need for destructive seam testing.

PVC geomembranes arrive on the job site prefabricated into large panels that can be pulled out to cover larger areas. About 70 percent fewer field seams need to be made when using PVC gomembranes versus polyethylene ones, according to the PVC Geomembrane Institute.

Phaneuf expects a preliminary draft of the revised solid waster management regulations available for public comment in late spring or early summer 2004.