Increasingly stringent regulation of pollution and waste production worldwide drives the need to isolate contaminants that pose a threat to human and environmental health by using engineered barrier systems involving the use of low permeable materials. Over the past two decades, geosynthetic clay liners have gained widespread acceptance for use in such barrier systems. They are often used as a component of primary and secondary base liners or final cover systems in municipal solid-waste landfills as well as in regulated industrial storage and mining waste-disposal facilities.

This...