Health risks from unlined landfills near Alaskan federally recognized Tribes: Determining the fate and transport of landfill contaminants through a changing environment

Solid waste practices employed by rural Alaskan Tribal governments may be contributing to human and environmental health impacts, which may be exacerbated with the loss of permafrost and increased erosion. In some communities, human waste, household hazardous waste, and electronic waste are co-mingled with typical solid waste in Class III landfills. The landfill heat and loss of permafrost may be causing the transport of contaminants into land and water resources. Determining a conceptual site model for each landfill is a priority to determine the fate and transport of the potential contaminants of concern but the lack of subsurface data is an obstacle.

Impact/Purpose

Solid waste management in rural Alaska communities is extremely challenging due to multiple factors including the remote locations and an increasingly changing environment. EPA is working to co-create knowledge with several Tribes in Alaska to improve solid waste management and adapt to changing conditions, such as permafrost thaw, which could mobilize contaminants from landfills. To better understand contaminant pathways from landfills to the surrounding environment, finer-scale surface and subsurface data are needed. Additional data would improve the development of field sampling plans and understanding of where the impacts of permafrost loss on contaminant transport could be the greatest. This presentation is part of a webinar series organized by the developers of the Permafrost Discovery Gateway to learn about the needs of data users to inform future data and modeling efforts. The presentation will provide an overview of the Alaska landfill contaminants project and the project's data needs related to permafrost.

Citation

Tahiry, S., A. Wiseman, S. Lee, L. Oliver, AND F. Walls. Health risks from unlined landfills near Alaskan federally recognized Tribes: Determining the fate and transport of landfill contaminants through a changing environment. Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG) webinar series, Virtual, WA, December 05, 2024.