Professional paper
Organic Contaminants in the Jakuševec Landfill and Their Impact on Groundwater Quality
Marijan Ahel
Senka Terzić
Nataša Tepić
Abstract
Landfilling is probably, the most popular disposal method for the management of domestic and industrial waste. Unfortunately, many landfills around the world do not include leachate collection systems and present a considerable risk to the underlying aquifers. There have been numerous reports on groundwater contamination in the vicinity of unprotected landfills, paying particular attention to specific organic contaminants. This problem is especially pronounced in landfills which, in addition to ordinary domestic refuse, contain waste of industrial origin. Jakuševec, the main landfill of the city of Zagreb, belongs to this category. The recently completed remediation programme for Jakuševec included comprehensive investigations with the aim to quantify various organic contaminants in solid waste and establish their possible infiltration into the underlying soils and groundwater. A detailed analyses using chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques made it possible to identify a number of contaminants. According to their origin, the identified compound classes can be divided into the two main categories: markers of biological waste and its microbial transformation and markers of anthropogenic waste. Our investigations have shown that the composition of organic contaminants changes dramatically during the vertical transport from the solid waste through the unsaturated zone of soil to aquifer sediments, which involves both physicochemical and biotransformation processes. The vertical transport of polar organic contaminants was very efficient and led to a significant contamination of the aquifer in the vicinity of the landfill.
Keywords
anthropogenic waste; aquifer; biological waste; chromatography; groundwater; Jakuševec landfill; leachate; organic contaminants; remediation; soil; spectrometry
Hrčak ID:
4580
URI
Publication date:
28.9.2006.
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