Study - US Landfills 3rd-Largest Source Of Methane Emissions; 80% Put Out @ Least 100 Kg/Hour

[hatrack]

An elusive climate menace is now easier than ever to see. In early March, a rocket launched into the sky with a satellite that spots methane emissions from space. MethaneSAT joined more than a dozen similar satellites now in orbit, scanning the Earth for pollution and feeding that information back to scientists, policymakers, industry and the public.

What story does the data tell? One of methane on the rise, or one of collective efforts that avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis? Slashing methane is the most efficient way to slow global warming in our lifetimes. We have the chance – and the obligation – to do so. When we think of methane, we often picture leaking pipelines or belching cows. But trash, organic waste decomposing in landfills, is the third largest source of human-caused methane pollution in the United States.

Thanks to huge advances in technology, a new study has brought more clarity to the landfill methane problem than ever before. The non-profit organization Carbon Mapper, with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other researchers, observed methane emissions from hundreds of large landfills across the US by aircraft. They detected significant emissions at more than half of the landfills they flew over. The emissions were often persistent: observed over multiple visits, spanning months, sometimes years. And they were large. About 80% of the emissions detected at landfills – more than 850 unique methane plumes – released at least 100kg of methane an hour.

That emission rate meets the “super-emitter” threshold that the EPA set for the oil and gas sector in its new standards. These large plumes are not fully captured in official inventories. On average, landfill emission rates calculated in the study over multiple visits were 1.4 times higher than the emissions that operators reported to the EPA.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/09/methane-pollution-organic-waste-landfills

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I thought in the 80s they planned to cap landfills, under parking lots, and capture the offgas

Seems to me this was a feature of some mall they built, perhaps in CT but it's really stretching my memory.