Leading drilling specialist Magpie has announced the deepest boreholes/wells for leachate extraction drilled to date.

SITA UK approached Magpie with a need for one of the most challenging landfill drilling projects undertaken to date.

Enderby Warren a closed landfill site in Leicestershire has existing leachate extraction chambers 74m deep. SITA wanted to retro drill some chambers adjacent to the existing chambers as a back-up to the wells. Magpie were contracted to drill two wells to an estimated target depth of 75m.

To Magpie’s knowledge this had not been achieved before in landfill in the UK. They completed the first well in just under two weeks, and on the second visit completed the second well in a week. This included drilling of the wells in 450/350mm diameters, with a double permanent steel installation. 406mm steel was installed to 50m and 273mm steel installed to final depth.

More on Magpie’s web site here.

Most UK businesses are “completely unprepared” for major new waste regulations coming in on October 31, requiring waste to be “pre-treated” before it is sent to landfill.

That is the view of business advisory company Grant Thornton, which said the “vast majority” of companies in this country are not ready for the legislation, which will require their non-hazardous waste to undergo some form of treatment before being landfilled (see letsrecycle.com story).

From October 31, commercial and industrial waste must be treated physically, biologically, chemically or thermally before going to landfill.

Grant Thornton’s government and infrastructure advisory team warned of “serious” penalties for those companies who do not comply with the new pre-treatment regulations.

Meanwhile, landfill operators are unhappy that they look set to take on the lion’s share of legal sponsibilities for waste coming in to their sites, to make sure waste producers have carried out pre-treatment.