By monitoring the connected system, recognizing change early, assigning a response, verifying the result, and using the history to improve the next decision, landfill gas management can move from periodic reaction to continuous operational awareness.
By Randy Adkins
A landfill gas collection and control system is not a single piece of equipment. It is a connected network of vertical and horizontal collectors, wellheads, valves, laterals, headers, condensate traps, sumps, pumps, blowers, flares, treatment systems, cover materials, and—in many cases—electric-generation or renewable natural gas (RNG) equipment. A change in one part of that network can affect performance somewhere else. A liquid-filled well can lose gas flow. A blocked lateral can change the vacuum distribution. An air leak can reduce gas quality. A failed condensate pump can eventually affect the blower or flare.
The traditional management model has depended on scheduled field rounds, handwritten readings, spreadsheets, and alarms located at individual pieces of equipment. Those tools remain valuable, but they provide snapshots. Conditions can change between inspections, and information may be distributed among operations staff, engineers, contractors, and energy project personnel. By the time a pattern becomes obvious, the site may already be responding to an odor complaint, a surface-emissions concern, a liquid-filled well, a flare shutdown, or reduced methane delivery. A better operating model is now available: give the people responsible for the gas system a shared, timely view of the conditions that influence it. For purposes of this article, a Remote Environmental Monitoring System (REMS) is the operational layer that connects distributed sensors, equipment status, historical trends, alerts, and field observations to a centralized dashboard that authorized personnel can reach from the office or the field. REMS does not replace technicians, required regulatory monitoring, SCADA controls, instrument calibration, or engineering judgment. It makes those resources more effective by helping teams recognize change sooner, decide where to investigate, and document what happened.
#1: Manage the Gas System as One Connected System
Begin with the operating objective. A site focused primarily on emissions control may tune differently from a site supplying an RNG plant, but every site must first meet its permits and applicable regulations. Map the assets that support that goal and identify the failure modes that could interfere with it. The monitoring plan should include more than wellhead readings. Depending on the site, it may include header vacuum, well or sump liquid levels, condensate-pump operation, force-main pressure, blower status, flare flame and temperature status, gas flow, treatment equipment, and surface or perimeter observations.
This system view prevents departments from optimizing one component while overlooking its impact on another. It also creates a common operating picture for the landfill, the gas system operator, the engineer, and the energy project team.
#2: Monitor Leading Indicators, Not Only Final Failures
A shutdown alarm signals that an event has already occurred. A leading indicator can provide time to act before the shutdown. Useful examples include a rising liquid level, longer or more frequent pump cycles, increasing force-main pressure, unstable header vacuum, loss of flow, or a gradual temperature increase. No single measurement tells the whole story. High applied vacuum with little flow may indicate a liquid-loaded or restricted well. A flare may be operating normally while part of the wellfield is underperforming. A pump may show a run signal while liquid continues to rise. REMS is most useful when related measurements are viewed together so the operator can distinguish a true process change from an isolated instrument reading.
#3: Establish a Normal Operating Range for Each Asset
Generic limits are not enough for day-to-day optimization. Develop a baseline for each critical asset using valid historical data, design information, field knowledge, seasonal conditions, recent filling activity, precipitation, and the site’s operating objective. Two wells in the same landfill may have different normal behavior. Then watch both the value and the rate of change. A reading may remain within an acceptable range while moving steadily in the wrong direction. Trend-based review can identify developing liquid loading, changing vacuum distribution, deteriorating pump performance, air intrusion, or sensor drift. Regulatory limits and permit conditions must remain separate from internal operating targets; the internal targets should provide an earlier opportunity to investigate.
#4: Make Every Alert Actionable
More alarms do not automatically create better control. Poorly selected thresholds lead to alarm fatigue, while vague notifications leave recipients unsure what to do. Each alert should identify the asset, condition, time, priority, responsible person, and expected response. Use staged notifications. An engineer may request a review of a developing trend. An urgent alert may require field verification during the current shift. A critical alarm may trigger an immediate call, escalation, and site-specific emergency procedure. Require acknowledgment, identify a backup recipient, and review recurring alerts. If the same alarm repeats without producing a useful action, the threshold, sensor, equipment, or response procedure needs attention.
#5: Connect Monitoring Directly to Maintenance
Data becomes valuable when it results in a completed action. An alert or abnormal trend should create a traceable work item: inspect the asset, record the finding, perform the repair or adjustment, and compare conditions before and after the work. This closes the loop between monitoring and maintenance. Over time, the record helps reveal root causes. Repeated liquid alarms may indicate pump reliability issues, insufficient compressed air to run the pump, or force main blockages. Recurring vacuum changes may indicate condensate accumulation, settlement-related low points, damaged piping, cover cracks, or air leaks. The history also supports better preventive maintenance intervals, spare parts planning, budgeting, and training for new employees.
#6: Use Remote Data to Focus Field Work—Not Eliminate It
Landfills still need experienced people in the field. Technicians verify instrument readings, observe cover conditions, inspect hoses and fittings, check for settlement or erosion, collect gas-quality measurements, tune wells, maintain pumps, and respond to conditions that a sensor cannot fully explain. Site-specific health and safety procedures remain essential. The advantage of REMS is that the morning route no longer has to begin with the same priority every day. The dashboard can direct attention first to the assets showing the greatest change or risk. After an adjustment, the team can confirm whether the system moved in the intended direction. Wellfield changes should still be deliberate, site-specific, and evaluated for their effect on adjacent wells and the system as a whole.
#7: Treat Data Quality and System Reliability as Maintenance Items
A remote system is only useful when users trust the information it provides. Establish written procedures for calibration, inspection, sensor replacement, communication loss, battery or solar-power condition, time synchronization, user access, and data retention. The system should flag missing or stale data—not only readings outside a limit—because silence from a failed sensor can appear to be normal operation. Compare remote readings periodically with calibrated field instruments and physical measurements. Record the correction when a sensor is repaired, replaced, or recalibrated. Protect access with individual accounts and appropriate permissions and maintain a response plan for communication or platform outages. REMS should add resilience, not create a new single point of failure.
#8: Start with a Focused Pilot and Measure the Result
A site does not need to connect every asset on the first day. Begin with the areas where delayed information creates the greatest operational consequences: known liquid-loading areas, critical sumps, difficult force mains, remote flare status, high-maintenance pumps, or assets supporting an RNG project. Before installation, document the baseline. Useful measures may include time from abnormal condition to acknowledgment, time to field response, hours of equipment downtime, emergency callouts, repeat pump failures, duration of high liquid levels, data completeness, and variability in gas flow or quality. Review the pilot after an appropriate operating period, refine the thresholds and procedures, and expand only where the information improves decisions. The objective is not to collect the most data; it is to shorten the distance between a developing condition and an effective response.
The Practical Value of Continuous Awareness
For the surrounding community, better landfill gas management can mean fewer conditions that contribute to odors, migration concerns, or avoidable emissions. For operators, it means less time searching for the source of a problem and more time correcting it. For owners, it provides a documented history of conditions and responses.
For energy projects, more stable collection can help protect gas quantity and quality before the gas reaches the flare, engine, turbine, or RNG plant. The important change is not the sensor itself. Landfills already use many capable technologies—portable analyzers, pumps, programmable controls, SCADA systems, flare instrumentation, weather data, and laboratory testing. What is often missing is the tool that places the relevant information in the hands of the people who must act across the entire system. Landfill gas systems will always require inspection, maintenance, tuning, and professional judgment. REMS provides the shared visibility that helps those activities happen sooner and with better information. The new best practice is simple: monitor the connected system, recognize change early, assign a response, verify the result, and use the history to improve the next decision. That is how landfill gas management moves from periodic reaction to continuous operational awareness. | WA
Randy Adkins is President of Integrated Environmental Technology, LLC (IET) and founder of IETLink. He works with landfill owners, engineers, and operations teams on landfill gas collection, environmental monitoring, maintenance, and the practical use of remote data to improve field decision-making. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or visit or .