Project 5.1: Resolving a Landfill Problem You are the assistant engineer for the Town of Quillicom in Michigan. Your boss is Robert D. Delorme, P.E., who is the town engineer. Mr. Delorme calls you into his office and announces, I have a project for you. The Town Council has finally decided to so something about the landfill problem, and they want it done in a hurry. You know about the landfill problem. The existing landfill siteat Lot 22, Subdivision 3Sis nearly full and, recognizing that a new site will not be selected before the present site reaches its capacity, he has authorized dumping an additional layer of garbage on top of the compacted fill. Before you do anything, I want you to read this, Mr. Delorme continues, placing a report in your hands. Its a study done by H. L. Winman and Associates a while ago, and it affects what you will be doing. Take it away and read it, and then come back to me for further instructions.

You read the report (you will find it in Figure 5-6, on pages 112 to 117) and then go back to see Mr. Delorme. The town councillors have decided, he says, that before they can make a decision they need to know how much it will cost to drill a dozen boreholes north of Quillicom and analyze the results. I want you to get some quotations that I can present to them. You should also be aware that the councillors very much prefer Lot 18, Subdivision 5N, rather than either of the other locations. Who will plot the results of the drilling? you ask. Morley Wozniak, at H. L. Winman and Associates in Lansing, Michigan. He did the previous study and wrote the report I asked you to read. Mr. Delorme hands you a map (the same as that in Figure 5-6, page 114) and a list titled Borehole Specifications for the Area North of Quillicom, which contains the exact positions Morley has identified where the drilling must be carried out. And how many quotations should I get? you ask. Two, as a minimum, Mr. Delorme suggests. Three would be better. The following week you call on the only two drilling companies you know of in the area, one in Quillicom and one in Marquette. They give you the following quotations: Northwest Drillers, Inc. $78,520 (tax incl) Quillicom, Michigan M. J. Peabody Inc. $75,900 (tax extra) Marquette, Michigan You had almost given up hope that you would find a third company to give you a quotation, when Mr. Delorme telephones. Go and see Bert Knowles, he instructs you. Hes the assistant to the superintendent at Melody Lake Mine, and he has a suggestion for an alternative landfill site. Mr. Knowles comes right to the point: We do both open-pit and underground mining. Our open-pit mine is nearly worked out and we will finish excavating there in less than two years. The problem is that its unsightly, and the Environmental Protection Agency is leaning on Melody Lake Mines to do something about it. Thats where you come in. He explains that the Town of Quillicom can use the open-pit mine for a landfill, and the mine will lease it to the town for one dollar a year. We have only two conditions. You must spread soil over the compacted garbage, and do it progressively as you go along so there will be no obnoxious smell for the people who live near the mine to contend with. And then you must seed it and plant trees.

You agree: its something the Town would do anyway, before closing a landfill site. Mr. Knowles drives you to the site and you stand on the lip of a shallow, roughly oval excavation varying from about 10 to 50 feet deep. How large is it? you enquire. Youll have to talk to Inga Paullsen. Shes the mine geologist. When you visit Inga, she calculates the size of the excavation as 60.9 acres. Thats what it will be, she adds, when the mining is complete. Why do you need to know? You describe the difficulty the Town Council is having in finding a landfill site, mention the three other sites, say the one north of the town could create an environmental problem, and explain you wont know until drilling has been completed there. But drilling has already been done there, Inga exclaims. When I was a junior at college I worked one summer with an exploration crew sinking boreholes north of Quillicom. We were looking for an alternative place to sink a mine shaft, but we found no ore deposits north of either Melody Lake or Quillicom. We drilled quite a few boreholes. Inga tells you the mine does not have the records, only a report from the drilling company. She searches for it among the geology records, but cannot find it. Its strange, she mutters, It should be here. Someone must have removed it. The drilling company Inga worked for was Mayquill Explorations, but she says it does not exist anymore. When Ernie Mays retired he simply closed down the company. Maybe he still has the records. You could ask him. He still lives in Quillicom. Ernie Mays is about 70 and he lives in a bungalow at 211 Westerhill Crescent. I quit eight years ago, he tells you. I sold some of my accounts to Northwest Drillersthose that were still activeand kept the remainder. He remembers drilling for Melody Lake Mines. We sank about 20 boreholes, all north of Quillicom, but we didnt find anything. You ask if he remembers whether the bedrock slopes, but he shakes his head. Not really, he says. Nothing definite. But he adds that he does remember there was evidence of a large sand esker running roughly south-southwest toward Quillicom. Do you still have the records? No, he says. The mine has them. Mr Caldicott came to see me himself, about three years ago, and I gave them all to him. Suddenly, everything falls into place. Frank Caldicott is not only general manager of Melody Lake Mines, but also a very influential Quillicom town councillor. And his youngest sister, Julie, is married to the town engineerRobert Delorme, your boss.

Because you have so much new information to include, you decide to write a semiformal report of your findings. (You will have to decide whether you will include the information you now have about the previous drilling north of Quillicom, and the location of the records.) Here is some additional data you may need to write your report: 1. You are concerned about groundwater contamination problems if the open-pit mine is used as a landfill, so call Morley Wozniak at H. L. Winman and Associates in Lansing. He tells you that it will not be a problem. Both the lake and the mining community are north of the pit, and the bedrock slopes to the south. 2. You calculate that costs to develop the open-pit mine as a landfill will be only $3000, because you can use the buildings and approach roads that are already there. 3. The open-pit mine is 2.5 miles directly south of Quillicom, but 4.1 miles by road (2.4 miles southeast along highway A806, then 1.7 miles southwest along highway B1201). 4. The annual operating cost for using the open-pit mine as a landfill will be $49,500, which is $2500 more than the cost for operating the current landfill. 5. You obtain a third drilling estimate from Quattro Drilling and Exploration Company in Houghton, Michigan, which quotes $83,200, tax included. Before starting to write your report you visit Thunder Bay on other business. On a hunch you visit the Land Titles Office and look up the surveys for the area north of Quillicom. Against Lot 18, Subdivision 5N, you find the owner listed as Julie Sarah Caldicott, 207 Northern Drive, Quillicom, Michigan. Now write your report