Geoenvironment Management and Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 23

groundwater resources as a source without proper treatment prior to use. We should
note that contamination of receiving waters such as ponds, lakes, and rivers occurs also
through leachate transport through the soil and, quite obviously, from surface runoff from
point and non-point pollutant sources. From the perspective of the geoenvironment, pro-
tection of both surface water and groundwater quality requires one to practice impact
mitigation and management, as shown, for example, in Figure 1.10 for management of
liquid waste discharge into the environment to avoid impacting the receiving waters. The
decision points shown in the protocol diagram include criteria, procedures, tests, etc., that
need to be conducted to satisfy regulatory requirements.
To provide proper protection of the health of biotic receptors in the geoenvironment,
treatment of the liquid waste streams requires detoxiication and removal of all toxic and
hazardous constituents and suspended solids before discharge. Reuse of the treated waste
streams is encouraged. Typical reuse schemes include irrigation (in farming and agricul-
ture activities), process streams (such as resource extraction) and cooling towers. Waste
streams that cannot be treated effectively and economically to reach acceptable discharge
standards will require impoundment in secure ponds. Procedures have been developed
that will reduce the liquid content of these noxious liquid waste streams. To protect the
resources in the geoenvironment, the product(s) will most likely need to be incinerated
or contained in secure impoundment facilities. Typical containment and impoundment
facilities would be landills. Co-disposal of these kinds of waste products with other types
of waste products has been proposed as a means to accommodate these waste products.
Figure 1.11 shows two typical barrier systems used to line landill facilities. The details for
these kinds of containment and waste management systems will be discussed in the next
chapter.

Liquid waste stream

Engineered liquid
containment facility-
waste ponds

No

Can be treated?

Yes

No

Treatment satisfies
regulatory standards?

Yes

Restructure
discharge
procedure

Structure
required
programs

No

Approved discharge
procedure

Yes

Disposal meets
regulatory
requirements

Yes No

Monitoring and maintenance
required?

FIGURE 1.10
Program for management of liquid waste stream discharge into receiving waters and land surface areas.