The Moon Plains sanitary landfill in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka was visited by MSc environmental science students. The landfill was engineered by JICA and uses semi-aerobic methods. It has leachate collection pipes, a treatment facility using coconut fibers and wetlands, and gas vents. However, problems include a lack of monitoring of leachate and gas emissions. The landfill's classification is also problematic as bedrock is discontinuous and could allow leachate contamination of nearby reservoirs without proper sealing.

1. FIELD VISIT REPORT ON MOONPLAINS
SANITARY LAND FILL IN NUWARAELIYA
ENS 516 Land Pollution and Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
K.S.Sivanesan
Reg.no.PGIS/EN/MSc/ENS/13/13
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2. Abstract
On September07th 2013, Our MSc Environmental science student of PGIS went on field visit to
Moon Plains Sanitary land fill Nuwara Eliya. Participation of our members. Main aim of this in
the surrounding.Field visit was to study the solid waste management practice sanitary land fill
and gain some knowledge from it.This field visit arranged by Dr.Shameen Jinadasa. As we
started from University at 7.30am. The morning we were welcomed by a rain. we are visited
Moon Plains sanitary landfill we look the landfill how it maintain, how it work and facilities are
there after that look the Hospital waste how to manage then we look sludge water treatment how
is it function what are ideas are using for sludge water treatment then we look the Leachate
Collecting and treatment Facility . We spent that time under a shelter and studying and sharing
knowledge on sanitary landfill and we observe the lake Gregory .
Introduction
The disposal of solid waste is a problem. This problem continues to grow with the growth of
population and development of industries. Surrounding land use It is located in the Plantation
forest which belongs to the Forest Department. The forest where the landfill site is located is
surrounded by agricultural land and tea estate land. The landfill site is located outside of Nuwara
Eliya Municipal Council area. It is start on 1996. Municipal Council successfully utilizes
closed, elevated communal bins. However, this success can be attributed to the fact that MC put
number on all communal bins and carefully monitors their condition every day in nuwaraeliya.
To keep the town cleans with the minimum resource input by Local Authority,.
Through Increasing public participation,To improve the current garbage
discharge and storage system., To increase public awareness and cooperation, To reduce the
amount of litter and garbage piles in local towns and To improve garbage collection and
transportation efficiency, through reducing double handling and making garbage loading much
easier.
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3. The landfill was engineered and financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency
and it is the only landfill in Sri Lanka. Nuwara Eliya municipal council used 2.0ha from the
5.8ha catchment as the dumpsite. The site is situated in Upcountry Wet-zone that has bimodal
rainfall pattern with 2700 mm annual average rainfall.
The landfill site is located in a valley
surrounded by plantation forest. The length of valley is approximately 400m and the depth of it
is 30m to 40m.There is stream approximately 500m below the valley. The stream finally flows
into the Bomuraella reservoir where water is being taken for irrigation as well as for domestic
purposes. The overburden consist of a residual formation of sandy clays, clayey sand followed
by the stronger layer of very highly weathered rock and end up with hard rock over all the tested
area. Thickness of the soil layer is very from 0.85 m to 3.75 m. The permeability (k) of borehole
is 0.15-4.28 l0-7m/s.The valley where the existing landfill site is located catches rainwater within
the meadow land owned by agricultural department upside of the valley.
Earlier this landfill did not contain any environmental protection methods like
fence, gate, and other necessary facilities that should be in a landfill like weigh bridge, leachate
treatment method, buffer zone and water supply. To have a proper waste disposal open dumpsite
should convert in to a sanitary landfill like in Moon Plains now. And the total open area which is
2.0ha is now has been converted to controlled sanitary landfill. For proper sanitary landfill it
should be monitored frequently and should control its activities as required. Monitoring and
control of the landfill is do under the supervision of the monitoring committee which is chaired
by theChairman of the health committee fallowed by a municipal council member elected from
the ward near the landfill site, member from a municipal council staff in Health Department, a
member from municipal council staff in Works Department, A member from Central
Environment Authority staff, member from the staff in local environmental NGO rand a
representatives of neighborhoods. Monitoring is done frequently in early stages or the first six
months, it is monitored every month and after first six month land fill is monitored after every
three month this was done with the permission of the monitoring committee, permission is issued
after six month from the starting date. For this purpose there is monitoring well located in the
landfill. And monitoring is done according to a check list which is executed by the monitoring
committee.
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4. Moon Plain landfill has designed under a level 3 sanitary land fill which use semi aerobic landfill
method. And it involves leachate control facility, leachate treatment facility. Drainage facility, a
Gas venting facility as sanitary waste disposal facility and other required facilities, for education,
for security and for Maintenance. Movable fence to for prevent waste scattered to outside of the
site during landfill operations. And a fixed type fence to control the entry to the site.
Leachate Collecting Facility
Lined with clay and piping for leachate collection. Leachate collecting facility is a pipe network
that has installed underneath the landfill area which uses to collect the leachate. Pipe system used
hard concrete pipes with relatively high diameter and with pores around the wall. This leachate
collection facility will collect the leachate and guide it to the leachate treatment faculty.
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5. Leachate treatment
Usually leachate coming out from the landfill contains significantly elevated
concentrations of undesirable material derived from the material that it has passed through like
organic acids, aldehydes, alcohols and simple sugars from municipal waste and heavy metals and
halogenated organics from Industrial waste. Therefore leachate should treat before releasing it to
the environment. The leachate that moves down through the solid waste in the landfill site is first
filtered as it passes through the sand layer. This leachate is collected by perforated leachate
collection pipes and gravity. It is conveyed to the leachate treatment facility consisting of 11
ditches interconnected in a ZIG ZAG’ manner with coconut coir as the biofilter media. The
effluent from the treatment facility is released to the environment. Apparently the quality
satisfies Central Environmental Authority (CEA) standards. However, there is no provision to
check the quality of the leachate emissions in the landfill and before being treated, so as to
determine leakages, particularly in clay lined landfill.
For that in Moon Plains there is a leachate treatment facility located at the
down end of the valley. Leachate treatment facility contain combination system of coconut fiber
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6. a biological conductor for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, Charcoal filter for remove suspended
particles and heavy metals. And Wet land for filtration.
Gas Venting Facility
Since this landfill use semi aerobic conditions gas venting facility is much needed in Moon
Plain sanitary landfill. Vertical tar barrels filled with stone (with time, tar barrels corrode leaving
vertical porous media) to facilitate methane gas emissions.Gas venting facility help, aerobic
bacteria to degenerate solid waste easily. Gas venting facility also includes pipe system that
underlying the landfill which is end up with a perforated oil barrel filled with rubble stones. This
gas vent will release CH4(methane) and CO2 (carbon dioxide) to the environment without
accumulating inside the landfill. By measuring the gas composition it is possible to predict the
age of the landfill and the current status of the decomposition such like aerobic decomposition or
anaerobic decomposition stage.
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7. Sewage water treatment
The sewage water treatment are contaminated are treated under the biotic &
physical condition. Ditches interconnected in a ZIG ZAG’ manner with coconut fiber as the
biofilter media. ZIG ZAG design can increase the water flow distance. There are using coconut
fiber for increasing microbes activities it’s both aerobic & anaerobic bacteria involving
decomposing or sediment waste. Coconut fibers are use for increasing the conducting surface so
there are lot microbes involving. After the treatment water release in to drainage.
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8. Disposal pit for infectious medical waste
Disposing of Infectious Medical waste or the infectious waste should be done separately with
care minimize the contaminations. Therefore in Moon Plains, Hospital waste is dispose in to
separate pit located away from the dumping site, which would not contaminate ground water or
any other wastes.
Storm water Drainage
Moon Plains sanitary landfill consists of two types of drainage systems. First one is Rip rap type
along the waste filling slope and second one is Earth drain type along the access road to intercept
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9. all runoff from the outside from the access road. Storm water drainage system is designed
to drain excess rain and ground water from the dumping site.
Problems associated with the Moon Plains sanitary landfill
Lack of proper monitoring of leachate and gas emissions. Methane gas emitted to the
atmosphere that is can green house effect . This land fill is classified as a level 3 sanitary landfill
even though this is classified to a level three sanitary landfill there are some major problems with
it, one is the discontinuous of the bed rock where bed rock plays a major role in preventing the
contamination of ground water and since there is underground spring located in the site. Because
of not doing a complete geological survey, authorities was not able to avoid the contamination of
the underground spring hence Bomuraella reservoir unless use of acement mortar, but they are
fail to use cement mortar for entire area which cause leachate to penetrate through cracks.
Second deficiency of the landfill is that they release the leachate without continuous analysis for
BOD5 and COD levels which should be in the range of 30ppm and 250ppm respectively. And
leachate collecting facility is good place for mosquito breeding and may lead to other health
problems like Dengue epidemic. Third deficiency is that there is a lack of infrastructure facilities
such as electricity, water and telephone facilities, which make administrating processors, are
more difficult. By avoiding and completing those deficiencies Moon Plains sanitary landfill can
improve more to achieve maximum use of the invested money and the time on it. Daily cells are
should cover used by soil.
References….
Asanga Manamperi, L.C. Jayawardhana, Ajith de Alwis, Sumith Pilapitiya; Usefulness of best
fill expert system: a case study of three landfill sites in Sri Lanka,
TECHNICAL GUIDELINES ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN SRI LANKA
,Prepared by: Hazardous Waste Management Unit Pollution Control Division Central
Environmental Authority 104, Dencil Kobekaduwa Mawatha Battaramulla Sri Lanka
GUIDELINES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SCHEDULED WASTE IN SRI LANKA, In
accordance to the National Environmental (Protection & Quality) Regulation,No. 01 of
2008,CENTRAL
9

10. all runoff from the outside from the access road. Storm water drainage system is designed
to drain excess rain and ground water from the dumping site.
Problems associated with the Moon Plains sanitary landfill
Lack of proper monitoring of leachate and gas emissions. Methane gas emitted to the
atmosphere that is can green house effect . This land fill is classified as a level 3 sanitary landfill
even though this is classified to a level three sanitary landfill there are some major problems with
it, one is the discontinuous of the bed rock where bed rock plays a major role in preventing the
contamination of ground water and since there is underground spring located in the site. Because
of not doing a complete geological survey, authorities was not able to avoid the contamination of
the underground spring hence Bomuraella reservoir unless use of acement mortar, but they are
fail to use cement mortar for entire area which cause leachate to penetrate through cracks.
Second deficiency of the landfill is that they release the leachate without continuous analysis for
BOD5 and COD levels which should be in the range of 30ppm and 250ppm respectively. And
leachate collecting facility is good place for mosquito breeding and may lead to other health
problems like Dengue epidemic. Third deficiency is that there is a lack of infrastructure facilities
such as electricity, water and telephone facilities, which make administrating processors, are
more difficult. By avoiding and completing those deficiencies Moon Plains sanitary landfill can
improve more to achieve maximum use of the invested money and the time on it. Daily cells are
should cover used by soil.
References….
Asanga Manamperi, L.C. Jayawardhana, Ajith de Alwis, Sumith Pilapitiya; Usefulness of best
fill expert system: a case study of three landfill sites in Sri Lanka,
TECHNICAL GUIDELINES ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN SRI LANKA
,Prepared by: Hazardous Waste Management Unit Pollution Control Division Central
Environmental Authority 104, Dencil Kobekaduwa Mawatha Battaramulla Sri Lanka
GUIDELINES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF SCHEDULED WASTE IN SRI LANKA, In
accordance to the National Environmental (Protection & Quality) Regulation,No. 01 of
2008,CENTRAL
9