Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Content

The course covers two topic areas:

  • Investigation and remediation of contaminated sites
  • Design and construction of waste-disposal sites

The course emphasizes the practical engineering aspects of these topics, but also covers theoretical aspects of mass transport in the subsurface and how it is important to these topics.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Home-Work 30%
Take-Home Mid-term Exam 25%
Final Exam 25%
Design Problem 20%

You can complete an optional paper to substitute for one exam grade but you must take all exams.

Regular attendance and class participation will be considered in assigning final grades.

Collaboration on homework is permitted — please list your collaborators.

Reading

Please complete the reading before each lecture. Some parts of the reading are labeled "skim" in the syllabus below. My goal for you is to be familiar with these documents and their general contents.

You are requested to read a book for the final lecture: Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action. New York: Random House, 1995.

If you have not taken course 1.72, Ground Water Hydrology, you should review basic principles of the subject. Please see me for suggested reading.

References

Fetter, C. W. Contaminant Hydrogeology. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, 1999.
An excellent reference on contaminants in ground water.

Qian, X. , R. M. Koerner, and D. H. Gray. Geotechnical Aspects of Landfill Design and Construction. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2002.
Comprehensive technical reference on landfills.

McBean, E. A. , F. A. Rovers, and G. J. Farquhar. Solid Waste Landfill Engineering and Design. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, 1995.
Although not quite as good a reference as Qian et al., 2002, this is also a good reference and a bargain in a paperback edition available from the Barnes and Noble web site.

Daniel, D. E. Geotechnical Practice for Waste Disposal. London: Chapman and Hall, 1993.
A comprehensive reference that was the course text in past years. It is a bit out of date on remediation technologies, but still a very good reference.