Landfill as a means of waste disposal is widely considered reliable and cost effective if adequately applied and monitored. However, improper management of such method of waste disposal could result to severe environmental and health hazard. Over the years, landfills have been identified as one of the major threat to ground and surface water which calls for consistent monitoring and means of treatment of such ground and surface water. In response to this, Seghill landfill- an engineered landfill used for the disposal of industrial and municipal solid waste in United Kingdom was assessed for its environmental impacts with emphasis on leachate impact as well as the extent of contamination on the surrounding environment. Ground and surface water, soil, sediment and leachate samples were collected from the vicinity of Seghill landfill. Field and laboratory measurements were carried out to quantify specific physiochemical parameters, inorganic constituents, heavy metals, ammonia and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in the sampled materials. The concentrations of Fe, Cl-, PO43-, Ba, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Na, Ni, Se, TOC and ammonia in leachates were higher than the National Environmental Standards for Discharge of Effluent into water and on land. The concentrations of Se, Cd, Ni and TOC in water samples were above WHO tolerable limits for potable water. TOC, ammonia and Fe concentrations in sampled waters infer that water quality degradation was caused by leachate migration to the environment. While metals in soil and sediment samples were within tolerable limits, their concentrations exceeded the concentrations in leachate samples. The study revealed environmental contamination by leachates on surface runoff to be deleterious.  This has also indicated the need for landfills to be situated far from water bodies and farm lands with appropriate positioned monitoring wells.

Environmental impact assessment of Seghill landfill: An approach for monitoring leachate contamination of ground and surface water

248th National Meeting (2014)

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