Ground Water Investigation of Possible Leaching from Sanitary Landfill Disposal Sites : Ellis and Russell Counties, Kansas

This thesis describes the hydrogeology and water quality at the Ellis and Russell County sanitary landfill sites and assesses potential migration pollution to nearby water resources. The Ellis County sanitary landfill is one mile north of Hays, in the SE ¼ of Sec. 17, T. 13 S., R. 18 W. The Russell County landfill is three and one-half miles north of Russell in the NW ¼ of Sec. 2, T. 13 S., R. 14 W. Both landfill sites are located in terrace deposits of late Pleistocene age. Slug tests were conducted at each landfill site to determine the hydraulic conductivity. The hydraulic conductivity for the Ellis County sanitary landfill is 9.6E - 4 cm/sec (2.7 ft/day) and the Russell County sanitary landfill is 7.86E - 3 cm/sec (22.3 ft/day). A specific capacity method was used to determine the hydraulic conductivity at the Ellis County sanitary landfill well 2we and resulted in a hydraulic conductivity of 1.0E - 3 cm/sec (3.0 ft/day). Degradation of on-site ground water is evident by the increased concentration of chloride, total dissolved solids, sulfate and magnesium due to minor attenuation by the sands and gravels. The Ellis County sanitary landfill hydrogeology indicates subsurface migration through an unnamed tributary to the water-bearing alluvium of Big Creek. The Russell County sanitary landfill hydrogeology indicates subsurface migration for leachate to the northwest, toward the Saline River