Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill: virtual
tour
What is emissions monitoring? Why are emissions monitored at
landfills?
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What is emissions monitoring?
 Unlike near surface gas monitoring, which measure the concentrations
of chemicals in landfill gas, emissions monitoring measures the
rates at which chemicals in landfill gases are released from landfills.
Emissions sources at landfills that are most frequently monitored
are the landfill surface itself and landfill gas combustion units
(e.g., flares or other combustion devices).
Why are emissions monitored at landfills?
 Landfill gas emissions may be monitored for one or more of the
following reasons: to comply with federal and state environmental
regulations; to judge the need for, or effectiveness of, a landfill
gas control system; and/or to determine the general composition
and volume over time of air contamination emanating from the landfill.
Emission rate estimates or monitoring may also be used to assess
whether it is technically and economically feasible to recover
and use the landfill gas for energy production. For example, landfill
gas can be collected and combusted in boilers to produce steam
to heat a manufacturing process in a building, or it can be combusted
in a gas turbine or internal combustion engine to generate electricity.
 To
comply with the Clean Air Act, large landfills must install landfill
collection and control systems. To estimate NMOC emissions, the
landfill must use a model. One input to the model is the NMOC concentration
in the landfill gas, which can be measure through sampling and
analysis procedures described in the EG/NSPS rule (sometimes referred
to as Tier 2 testing), or a default NMOC concentration, provided
in the rule, can be used.  These large landfills must control emissions
with (1) a well-designed and well-operated gas collection system
and (2) a control device (usually flare or other combustion device)
capable of reducing emissions in the collected gas by 98 weight
percent.
Depending on the type of control device, an initial stack test
to measure the NMOC emission rate and percent destruction may be
required. To indicate whether the landfill gas collection system
is operating properly, landfills must also periodically monitor
surface methane concentrations (as described earlier in the near
surface monitoring section). Temperature and nitrogen or oxygen
levels also must be monitored at the landfill gas collection wells.
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