ENGI 7718 - Environmental Geotechniques
Spring 2009

Instructor: Dr. C. A. Coles
Room: EN 3004
Tel: 737-8704
Email: ccoles@mun.ca

Teaching Assistant: Emmanuel Asapo
Room: EN 1035C
Tel: 737-3547
Email: esasapo@mun.ca
Environmental Lab: EN 2076, ext. 7989.

Lectures: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 - 9:50 a.m.

Office Hours: Monday, 11:00 - 11:50 a.m. and Friday 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.

Quizzes: Wednesdays 26 May, 17 June, and 15 July

Tentative extra hours: Wednesdays, 11:00 - 12:30 p.m. or during office hours

Tentative and Confirmed Site Visits:

Robin Hood Bay Landfill Site, depature 8:00 a.m. Friday 8 May

Confirmed Guest Lecture:

Robin Hood Bay Landfill Site Presentation, Mrs. Shelly Pardy, Friday 8 May


Reserve Texts (QEII):

Geoenvironmental Engineering, Site Remediation, Waste Containment, and Emerging Waste Technologies
by H. D. Sharma and K. R. Reddy, 2004.

Geotechnical Aspects of Landfill Design and Construction
by X. Qian, R. M. Koerner and Donald H. Gray, 2002.

Geoenvironmental Engineering: Contaminated Soils, Pollutant Fate and Mitigation
by R. N. Yong, 2001.


Marking Scheme

  • Assignments ......... 15%
  • Three Quizzes ........ 45%
  • Final Exam ............. 40%

    Please note that only scientific calculators will be permitted on quizzes and exams. Programmable calculators or calculators with text or graphics storage will not be permitted.

    Please also note in the 2008-2009 University Calendar section 4.11.4 Plagiarism: is the act of presenting the ideas or works of another as one's own. This applies to all material such as essays, laboratory reports, work term reports, design projects, seminar presentations, statistical data, computer programs and research results. The properly acknowledged use of sources is an accepted and important part of scholarship. Use of such material without acknowledgment is contrary to accepted norms of academic behaviour. Information regarding acceptable writing practices is available through the Writing Centre.

    Assignments to be marked should be submitted in class or at the very latest by 2:00 p.m. of the same day.


    Topics

    1. Environmental Legislation

    2. Soil characteristics, physical and chemical weathering, soil constituents, major and trace elements, chemical properties, soil buffer capacity, clay minerals, other minerals, organic matter

    3. Soil water interactions, diffuse double layer, Coulomb’s Law, Fick’s First Law

    4. Groundwater flow, Darcy’s Law, capillarity, hydrologic cycle, hydrogeochemical cycle, groundwater constituents

    5. Sources and characteristics of wastes and health effects, Material Resource (Waste) Management

    6. Introduction to landfills, landfill leachate production, collection and modeling

    7. HELP (Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance) model operation

    8. Soil contaminant interactions, selectivity, partition coefficients, selective sequential extraction, batch equilibrium tests, leaching column tests, adsorption isotherms, Henry's Law

    9. Advection, dispersion, diffusion and contaminant transport

    10. Landfill site management, landfill gas generation, use of LANDGEM (Landfill Gas Emissions Model), landfill strategies, daily and final cover, bioreactor landfills, landfill liners, closure and postclosure

    11. Geosynthetics