Dr. Tony Sperling, P.Eng.

Dr. Sperling, P.Eng., Ph.D., is a landfill design specialist with a Doctorate in Geotechnical Engineering. Over the past eighteen years Tony has managed or participated as the Lead Engineer in more than 750 engineering design, development and closure projects at landfills, as well as hydrogeotechnical investigations, environmental monitoring studies and other solid waste related projects for municipal and private sector clients. Dr. Sperling develops the most appropriate closure design concepts for a site, based on his extensive experience in landfill closure, and coordinates design teams to ensure that project objectives are realized and systems are integrated.

Dr. Sperling is recognized as one of the leading geometric landfill designers in North America. Advances in steeper slopes, more stable covers, improved waste to cover ratios, Alternate Daily Cover (ADC) are amongst the techniques routinely being implemented to provide maximum capacity and air space utilization. Highlights of his innovative engineering approach include: 1) conceptual design of the first Bioreactor Landfill system at Highland Valley, 2) co-development of the vertical expansion concept for Vancouver Landfill that increased capacity by 10 million tonnes, 3) introduction of systematic cell-by-cell development plans and progressive closure strategies at many B.C. landfills, 4) design of the first Geogrid supported landfill expansion in B.C., 5) design and implementation of the first Biocover landfill in B.C. 6) development of in-footprint rock quarries and borrow pits (e.g. Hartland) 7) application of the U.S. EPA HELP model to the analysis of leachate generation at B.C. landfills and 8) co-developer of the Revelstoke Grizzly ADC system.

Dr. Sperling has been an invited lecturer on landfill design and operation at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and an author of more than 20 technical papers on landfill design and fire control. Also, he has developed a short-course on Landfill Design, Operations and Closure that has been adopted as the new B.C. Qualified Landfill Operator Course (BCQLO). Dr. Sperling is also a director of SWANA’s B.C. Chapter and Chair of the Training Committee, an active member on SWANA’s Bioreactor task force and a certified Manager of Landfill Operations (MOLO). Most recently, Dr. Sperling has been appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at UBC.