You may have heard that many years ago someone at EPA made the statement that eventually all liners will leak.  More recent scientific studies have shown that landfill liners will not eventually leak, and there is no basis for this speculation.  Laboratory testing has determined that the liners will last for hundreds of years. In fact, because a waterproof cap is permanently installed over completed landfill cells, the landfill will stop producing leachate well before the useful life of the landfill liners has been reached. This has been proven at the many municipal unlined landfills in the state that simply installed such caps when the state required them to shut down.  By keeping precipitation out of these landfills they have dramatically reduced contamination of groundwater beneath them.  In addition, our regulators require extensive monitoring and testing to ensure that the liner and leachate collection systems are working properly.