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This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Geo-Institute (G-I) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  Craig H. Benson, Ph.D, P.E., DGE, M.ASCE

Course Length: 1.5 Hours

Purpose and Background

Water balance covers (also know as evapotranspiration, or ET, covers and alternative covers) are sustainable final covers for waste containment facilities, including landfills, mine waste repositories, low level radioactive waste disposal sites, and contaminated materials left in place during site remediation. Soils are used to store infiltrating precipitation in the cover profile during wet periods, and plants and the atmosphere are used to extract the stored water during drier periods. WBCs rely on natural hydrologic principles functioning in the surrounding landscape, and thus can be more sustainable than conventional engineered barrier systems that work against natural principles. WBCs typically are less expensive to construct than conventional covers and are simpler and less expensive to maintain. In this webinar, the fundamental aspects of WBC design are discussed and design methods are presented.

Primary Discussion Topics

This course covers the basic aspects of water balance cover design. The speaker will discuss:

• Principles at work in a water balance cover
• Determining if a site is suitable for a water balance cover
• Unsaturated soil concepts needed for design
• Methods to determine the required cover storage capacity for site’s climate
• Methods to determine the soil water storage capacity of the cover
• Differences between monolithic and capillary barrier covers
• Procedure for determining the needed cover thickness
• Methods used for demonstrating performance
• Expectations for field performance and field demonstrations

The procedures that are presented are based on principles developed by the presenter in US EPA’s Alternative Cover Assessment Program and have been adopted in federal and state guidance documents.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize principles on which water balance covers function
• Identify locations where water balance covers function effectively and level of performance that can be expected
• Identify soil properties and measurements needed for design
• Determine the necessary thickness of the cover
• Explore strategies to demonstrate cover performance

Webinar Benefits

• Develop skills for appropriate siting of water balance covers—sites where they work well
• Develop skills needed to design or evaluate water balance covers
• Learn the latest design procedures from the leading expert on water balance covers
• Understand the key design parameters, and how to obtain these parameters
• Understand the key issues important to designers and environmental regulators

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

• Civil engineers, geological engineers, geotechnical engineers, environmental engineers, geologists, and hydrologists involved in landfill design, site remediation, mine waste containment, and/or low level radioactive waste containment
• Landfill and containment system designers, environmental regulators, and/or site owners

Webinar Outline

• Water balances covers – principles that make them work
• Unsaturated soils – principles and characterization for water balance covers
• Evapotranspiration – principles by which plants remove water from soil
• Computing required water storage from climatic data
• Computing storage capacity of a cover profile for monolithic and capillary barrier covers
• Computing the design thickness of the cover
• Modeling needs for performance demonstration
• Demonstrating field performance using test sections

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]