Solid Waste
We provide engineering, field, and materials testing services through the entire lifecycle of a waste facility, from site selection to post-closure monitoring.
GLA is one of the most experienced and accomplished landfill engineering firms in the western U.S. and the world.
Our cohesive project teams are comprised of industry-recognized professionals with advanced degrees, and field and lab technicians, many of whom have completed NICET registration, ACI, MSHA, and OSHA 40-hour training requirements.
Market Leader
300+
Landfill Projects
5
Full-Service Geotechnical Laboratories
16/7
States/Countries
90+
Environmental Monitoring and Reporting for Landfills
Services
Compliance/Permitting
GLA performs all aspects of permitting associated with solid, hazardous, mixed, and radioactive waste landfills, from the initial siting through operation and closure permitting. Expertise includes:
- Plans: Preliminary and Final Closure and Post-Closure Maintenance Plans (PCPCMPs and FCPCMPs), Non-water Release Corrective Action Plans (NWRCAPs), Foreseeable Release Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs)
- Reports: Disposal Site Information (RDSIs), Waste Discharge (ROWDs), Periodic Site Review (PSR)
- Solid Waste Facility Plan (SWFP) Applications
- Joint Technical Documents (JTDs)
- Conditional Use Permits (CUPs)
- Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs)/Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
- Army Corps of Engineers 404 Permits
Compost Facility Services
Solutions to the unique and sometimes complex planning, operations, and construction issues facing composting facilities that our team has developed include low-permeability pads utilizing on-site materials, approaching stormwater design from a low impact development (LID) perspective, and stormwater designs that allow for 100% on-site containment of runoff and compost leachate.
Construction Support Services
Providing a complete range of on-site construction observation and testing services to ensure that each project is built to design specifications, GLA has provided construction management (CM) and construction quality assurance (CQA) services for more than 300 solid waste and liquid impoundment projects. Our field technicians are experienced with:
- Geomembrane non-destructive and destructive testing methodologies
- Field soils testing and evaluation of soils/synthetic interfaces
- Single- and double-ring infiltrometer permeability testing, documentation, and report generation
Cover Design
Our staff of civil engineers have a well-deserved reputation for preparing both soil and geosynthetic final cover systems for all types of waste disposal facilities, with construction plans, specifications, and bid documents that are easily followed by the approving regulatory agencies and valued by contractors and construction managers for their constructability in a wide variety of climate zones and terrains. Our experience includes:
- Cover system studies and borrow source studies
- Geotechnical analyses for slope stability, settlement and liner systems
- Hydrogeologic studies
- Planting and irrigation systems, and long-term revegetation monitoring programs
- Construction quality assurance and construction management activities
Environmental Data Management
Our team developed GLA-Data, a geographic information system (GIS)-based database management system (DBMS) that is web-accessible for managing well data and analyzing water quality information at landfills, such as groundwater monitoring well-related information. Users can:
- Access and view information related to specific landfills, wells, sample events, or analytical data
- View and analyze historical water quality data
- Generate and export custom graphs
- Run and export reports used for state agencies
- Manage any documents related to their landfills
Environmental Remediation
GLA has worked with landfills, surface impoundments, and other regulated facilities throughout the western United States to identify and address the threats posed by a contaminant release to public health and the environment. We have experience with:
- Evaluation or Assessment Monitoring Programs (EMP or AMP) and Corrective Action Programs
- Engineering Feasibility Studies (EFS)
- Groundwater assessments and/or remediation work plans and regulatory negotiations for approval
- Evaluation of existing water quality monitoring systems
- Installation, development, and abandonment of monitoring wells and associated collection of air, soil, and water quality samples for laboratory analysis
- Evaluation and/or modeling of groundwater flow
Environmental Monitoring
GLA has earned a reputation for technical excellence with both our clients and the regulatory community for our full-service environmental monitoring and reporting services, including groundwater, soil, soil-pore gas, soil-pore liquid, and surface water sampling, monitoring, and reporting program development and implementation as well as regulatory compliance.
Expansion Design
Our landfill expansion construction drawings, technical specifications, and bid documents have gained high marks with regulatory agencies and withstood the tests of construction implementation with contractors.
Landfill Gas System Design, Monitoring, and Operations
GLA’s landfill gas (LFG) experts possess a wide range of skills and experience with LFG, LFG systems, and the site economic impacts of LFG sales. Our expertise includes:
- Engineering services including: NSPS GCCS design plans, LFG phasing plans and system construction plans, LFG generation and collection modeling, LFG beneficial use feasibility studies, operation and maintenance of LFG wellfields, LFG operational assessments
- Compliance monitoring, such as surface emissions monitoring (SEM), perimeter probe, and leak detection
- LFG system services related to HDPE lateral and headers; air compressor and other pneumatic systems services, LFG blower/flares, wellheads, pumps, LFG system construction
Leachate Management
Our solid waste, wastewater, and leachate treatment experts develop unique solutions to leachate treatment, transportation, storage, and disposal that can save landfill owners a substantial amount of time and money.
Solid Waste Planning Services
Solid Waste Planning Services: GLA’s comprehensive solid waste planning services are designed to enhance waste management strategies for municipalities, businesses, and communities, ensuring sustainable and efficient practices. We offer:
- Solid waste planning and procurement
- Waste characterization, financial, zoning and siting, and feasibility studies
- Stakeholder outreach
Stormwater Compliance/Design
GLA takes a tiered approach to treatment design that includes standard infrastructure design along with appropriate best management practices to meet increasingly restrictive stormwater discharge standards and increased monitoring and reporting requirements including navigating National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) compliance.
