The July 10 2000 Payatas Landfill Slope Failure

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of the slope failure in the Payatas landfill in Quezon City, Philippines. This failure, which killed at least 330 persons, occurred July 10th 2000 after two weeks of heavy rain from two typhoons. Slope stability analyses indicate that the raised leachate level, existence of landfill gas created by natural aerobic and anaerobic degradation, and a significantly over - steepened slope contributed to the slope failure. The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model was used to predict the location of the leachate level in the waste at the time of the slope failure for analysis purposes. This paper presents a description of the geological and environmental conditions, identification of the critical failure surface, and slope stability analyses to better understand the failure and present recommendations for other landfills in tropical areas. In addition, this case history is used to evaluate uncertainty in parameters used in back-analysis of a landfill slope failure.