ABSTRACT
Environmental geotechnics, environmental geology, engineering geology are solving many problems connected with the different waste materials, their storage in the form of spoil heaps, tailing dams, sanitary landfills. For the Czech Republic spoil heaps composed from tertiary clayey deposits which overlay seams of brown coal in the northern part of the country are typical example of such situation. From the place of excavation to the place of deposition into spoil heap body the clayey material is transported by train or by belt, preferably by belt. On the contrary the pore water pressure inside of individual clods is negative due to great unloading. Under this condition such soil will easily absorb water-free water or water from saturated air—even from air inside of the spoil heap’s body. The influence of heavy rainfall was observed many times and some correlation between rainfall and number of slope instability is similar as observed correlation between rainfall and rate of spoil heap settlement.
