Intelligent Monitoring of Methane at a Reclaimed Landfill Wasteland Transformed into a Valuable Public Park

Landfills are a necessity for the proper disposal of solid waste. However, when the landfill is closed and capped, the land is rarely used for any productive purpose. Overpeck Park in New Jersey was successfully transformed from a landfill wasteland to a public park. A methane monitoring system was designed to provide real-time information of methane leaks into any of the buildings (zones) to ensure corrective action. The installed system detected methane in one of the seven zones. Further scrutiny using cluster analysis confirmed the intermittent methane emissions to be associated with precipitation events, possibly due to moisture leaking into the capped landfill. The designed system successfully used telemetry to transmit methane detector activity to a centralized location (controller) which can send out notifications about any methane emission events. Furnishing the park management team with such information in a timely manner offers opportunities to mobilize corrective measures quickly. Besides landfills, the described gas monitoring technology has applications in other areas such as oil/gas extraction, mining, building complexes (e.g., dormitories and hotels), enclosed/underground parking lots, highway/subway tunnels, and wastewater treatment systems.