Landfill Gas Technician

As a Landfill Gas Technician, you may not have a glamorous workspace. You’re surrounded by other people’s garbage, after all. But you perform an incredibly important function each day you come to work when you’re a Landfill Gas Technician.

One of your mail goals as a Landfill Gas Technician is to ensure that the garbage won’t combust, and that contaminants won’t leech into the groundwater. This is a worthwhile task by almost anyone’s yardstick.

A landfill is made up of many layers of garbage, all compacted down and separated by layers of dirt. Bacteria eat the garbage and help it decompose. As they eat, they create methane, which is collected in a series of pipes throughout the landfill. This methane is incredibly flammable, and it’s usually vented out of small pipes and allowed to burn away safely.

During your workday, you ensure that this system is working properly. You run samples of the soil to make sure that gasses aren’t building up. You also see to it that the pipes and flares are functioning correctly.

When something breaks, you’re responsible for fixing it. This may mean getting a call in the middle of the night, and trundling to work in your pajamas to fix a leak before it becomes a hazard.

Most of your work is regulated by state and federal laws. They outline how much gas you can allow to accumulate, and how much you should burn. You must know these regulations inside out in order to do your job properly. While you’re not required to pass a pop quiz, your landfill is required to pass a random inspection.