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Monitoring of the process of waste landfill leachate diffusion in clay and sandy soil

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 191, Article number: 577 (2019) Cite this article

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the interaction of landfill leachate of urban solid waste in clayey (CL) and sandy soils (SL) in order to determine physical and chemical parameters that can be used as indicators of soil contamination when there are faults in the landfill waterproofing. In the diffusion tests, compacted soil samples were placed in contact with leachate (methanogenic phase). The temporal analysis (200 days) considered the parameters pH, electrical conductivity (EC), alkalinity, nitrogen series, chemical oxygen demand (COD), solids and color for the leachate and pH, ΔpH, EC, total nitrogen (TN), chemical elements, and cation exchange capacity (CEC) for the soils. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to results. It was observed that the studied soils have potential to attenuate chemicals present in the leachate; this indicates the possibility of using them as base in landfills. Correlation analysis and PCA carried out to CL showed that in a process of CL monitoring the pH would be the key parameter to indicate contamination of this soil, due to the high correlation of this parameter with the others analyzed. For the SL, the parameters pH, alkalinity, apparent color, and COD (total and filtered) could be used as indicators of contamination. In both soils, monitoring of concentrations of Ca, Mg, K, SB, V, and CTC can be used to indicate possible faults in the waterproofing system of the landfill.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES) for the scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Construction, State University of Londrina, Rodovia Celso Garcia Cid, Km 380 e Campus Universitario, Londrina, Parana, 86057-970, Brazil

    Flávia Gonçalves, Camila Zoe Correa, Deize Dias Lopes & Raquel Souza Teixeira

  2. Department of Geosciences, State University of Londrina, Rodovia Celso Garcia Cid, Km 380 e Campus Universitario, Londrina, Parana, 86057-970, Brazil

    Pedro Rodolfo Siqueira Vendrame

Authors
  1. Flávia Gonçalves
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  2. Camila Zoe Correa
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  3. Deize Dias Lopes
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Correspondence to Flávia Gonçalves.

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Gonçalves, F., Correa, C.Z., Lopes, D.D. et al. Monitoring of the process of waste landfill leachate diffusion in clay and sandy soil. Environ Monit Assess 191, 577 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7720-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7720-9

Keywords

  • Soil contamination
  • Temporal analysis
  • Principal component analysis (PCA)
  • Landfill waterproofing barrier
  • Leak detection techniques