A vendor conducted a 2-week pilot test, followed by an engineering study, of its single-pass membrane system to demonstrate and define how the system would work in solving Kandiyohi County's landfill leachate issues within reasonable physical infrastructure costs. The treatment system is an innovative patent-pending technology that uses stainless steel pipes, a simple 30-hp pump, and filters that cost about $4,000 each to remove impurities from water. The treated leachate meets National Drinking Water Standards. The inert leachate waste product concentrate is returned to the landfill, and the treated effluent is discharged to a sedimentation basin for infiltration to groundwater. The cleaned water was tested for 140 different compounds by independent testing laboratories. Almost 90% of the compounds tested were removed completely. Testing for perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, was done at parts-per-trillion levels at a California laboratory [see slides 29-31]. This type of filtering system has been used for the last decade in European and Asian countries, but the Kandiyohi County installation was the first of its kind in the United States. https://recycleminnesota.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Leachate-Treatment-Pilot-Study-at-Kandiyohi-County-Landfill-Larry-Kleindl.pdf
[Followup note: Installation of a full-scale leachate treatment system at the landfill was completed in the fall of 2015 and now saves the county from trucking millions of gallons of leachate to the local wastewater treatment plant each year. Installation was estimated as $2.8 million capital cost, with about $17,000 in annual operating cost, for a projected $3 million in savings over 20 years. Additionally, the Kandiyohi County Landfill Leachate project won top honors at the 2016 American Council of Engineering Companies Engineering Excellence Honor Awards in January 2016.]