Class III Landfill Monitoring in Active Fault Regime

KELLER, BARRY, and WADE ALLMON, Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

A Class III landfill in the San Joaquin Valley area has been investigated in connection with regulatory permitting requirements. The hydrogeologic regime is dominated by recharge from the nearby Kern River. A review of subsurface data for the nearby Kern Bluff oil field shows a north-side-up fault that forms a structural trap on the north side of the field. This fault is herein named the Kern Bluff fault. Trenching within the landfill site shows that the fault transects the site. Displacement continues to the surface, with modern soils displaced against the Miocene-Pliocene Kern River Formation. Limited monitoring well data indicate that the fault divides the groundwater beneath the site into two aquifers. Vadose zone monitoring data indicate limited migration of contaminants within t e Kern River Formation, but the contaminants have not reached the water table.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91009©1991 AAPG-SEPM-SEG-SPWLA Pacific Section Annual Meeting, Bakersfield, California, March 6-8, 1991 (2009)