Joints containing clay pods
AAI was contracted by the City Engineer for a Midwest municipality to study the practicality of disposing of water treatment sludge in an underground stone mine near the treatment plant. The study included the following tasks:
- Mapping joints and filling types
- Sampling joint filling materials
- Examining joint filling materials under a microscope
- Sending joint filling samples to a lab for mineralogical analysis by XRF
- Determining hydraulic conductivity of joint fillings by falling-head methods
- Modeling stability of mines opening under varying water heads and estimating flow rates through joints to the far-field
The results indicated that minimal flow would occur laterally and vertically downward toward the drinking-water aquifer under expected and worst-case conditions.
