Landfill leachate pollution index

Abstract

A major portion of wastes generated due to rapid industrialization and urbanization ends up in landfills. The leachate generated as a consequence of physical and chemical changes in landfills can pose danger to the water and soil in the proximity. Poorly designed, faulty monitoring of leachate-handling systems could lead to unfortunate contamination affecting human and livestock health as well as adversely affecting agriculture and soil. An urgent need to quantify the contamination caused due to faulty handling of hazardous waste landfill (HWL) leachate has been felt. The leachate pollution index (LPI) has been an essential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential. The existing index was developed based on criteria, in particular, the toxicity and availability of the pollutants in the leachate from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill sites, and thus many pollutants which are present in HWL leachate in significant concentrations were screened out. However, with rapid industrialization, the quantities of hazardous waste generated and its dumping in HWLs and the toxicity associated or rendered with it is not dealt currently but there is an urgent need for the same. Thus, pollutants such as halogenated organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals such as selenium need to be considered in the formulation of LPI for hazardous waste landfills. In this chapter, a review of sources of hazardous wastes, their conventional handling methods, developing LPI for MSW landfill sites, and further how the same can be modified to develop LPI for HWLs are discussed. The procedure stated for LPI development in this study can serve as an essential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential, can be used as a comparison tool for different HWL leachates, furthermore, and for ranking landfill sites based on the contamination potential.