Effects of Landfill on the Quality of

Groundwater
Amhed V. Manuel

Everyday we are faced with a variety of environmental challenges and

choices. These choices form the foundation of a healthy lifestyle and
can help improve the planet as what Geoffrey Castro says in his article
Landfills: A concern pilling up (Castro 2006). Wastes are the main
contributor to polluted groundwater whether is it in the simple
household to big municipalities. Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) is a
category of diverse waste, generated from different sources (that is,
residential, commercial, municipal services, agriculture), each of which
is itself heterogeneous. Significant concerns over the environmental
impacts of MSW have emerged, the nature of which depends upon the
waste amount and composition, as well as the disposal methods.
(Manaf 2013).These wastes are disposed to landfill areas. Thus,
contaminates the valuable resource of drinking water. The most
frequent method of disposing waste worldwide is Landfilling. It is the
easiest and the cheapest technology in waste disposal available thus,
recognized as an important option both now and in the near future,
especially in low and middle- income countries (Manaf 2013).
Waste control
I believed that wastes can be never avoided nor totally vanished as
long as human exists and that is the reality. But to lessen this is to
control waste disposal to areas such as landfills. Landfill space must
be used optimally, and valued as a scarce resource (Environment
Protection Authority 1996). Control of types of wastes is the basic

measure on groundwater. Several methods are given to control wastes

such as separation or sorting for reuse and recycle, compost piles, tax
imposition, landfill taxes and wastes incineration or burning. Sorting
wastes as reusable and recyclable are the most common type of waste
control that has been introduced to almost every country in the world
but is neglected without realizing its impact to the environment that
results to pollution such as groundwater pollution from landfills.
Another way of waste control is imposing of tax on waste generating
products such as plastic bags. For instance in Germany, packaging
materials are imposed with tax to reduce unnecessary waste volume
and in Ireland, the government imposed tax on plastic shopping bags
at supermarkets brought about their virtual disappearance overnight.
For landfill taxes we do not only expect positive outcomes to happen
but we should also think its negative side. In the positive side, it
provide an economic encouragement and will also contribute to the
revenues of the city or state where the government get money from
for some environmental projects that is somehow helpful in reducing
wastes disposal. This strategy will promote illegal or uncontrolled
disposal practices. For instance, imposition of a charge for acceptance
of construction and demolition (C & D) waste at one landfill in Ireland
led to a rapid drop in the quantity of C & D waste delivered to the
landfill (Taylor n.d.). If this policy, was implemented to local cities great
improvement on waste management will be observed that entails good
environmental impact. According to EPA (Environmental Protection
Authority) there are four stages in waste management that is
illustrated in the figure below:
THE WASTE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY

1.
AVOID
2.
REUSE
DISPOSA
L
3.
RECYCLE
4.

MAXIMUM
CONSERVATION OF
RESOURCES

1. Avoiding waste
2. Re-using materials
3. Recycling and reprocessing materials
4. Waste disposal (if the first three are not possible)
(Environment Protection Authority 1996)
The figure above simply indicates the hierarchy of waste management
where avoiding products that are wastes generating such as plastics
and other materials that are non biodegradable. Then reusing items
that can still be used instead of throwing it in the garbage bins and the
most common practice that almost all people do not really apply is
recycling because of its inconvenience. Many people say that they do
not have time to recycle things and its rather a waste of time. Without
realizing this small thing, it already bite our backs were we see
polluted water.
Leachate of Landfill

Landfill forms the basis of every waste management plan, because

there will always be waste to be disposed of. If inadequate waste
management occurs this will result to environmental pollution and one
of it is the pollution on Groundwater (Maric 2012). Landfill is a
mechanism for effectively treating and disposing wastes at present
time. It entails risks like air pollution, groundwater pollution and
community amenity that should be disseminated to those who are
potential landfill occupiers. (Environment Protection Authority 1996).
Groundwater pollution is mainly due to the process of industrialization
and urbanization that has progressively developed over time without
any

regard

for

environmental

consequences

(Balogun

2010).

Groundwater is an important resource of drinking water and often used

to agriculture, industries and other aspects in the world. Sometimes,
due to the human activities resulting to pollution our source of water is
open to contamination. Polluted groundwater is resulted from leachate.
Leachate is a soluble constituent from soil; landfill that carries salts
dissolved out of materials through which it has percolated to the
groundwater. Leachate migration from wastes sites or landfills and the
release of pollutants from sediments (under certain conditions) pose a
high risk to groundwater resource if not adequately managed. Open
dumps are the oldest and most common way of disposing off solid
wastes, although in recent years, thousands have been closed, many
are still being used (Chidanand Patil 2013). The impact of leachate on
groundwater and other water resources has attracted a lot of attention
because of its overwhelming environmental significance. Leachate
migration from wastes sites or landfills and the release of pollutants
from sediments (under certain conditions) pose a high risk to the
groundwater resources if not adequately managed (Ikem A. 2002). This
major environmental problem implies the urgent protection of the
groundwater. Leachate from landfills is possibly contains hazardous
chemicals that can greatly pollutes the groundwater and results to

poisoning when water is used for drinking. These hazardous wastes are
included from industrial wastes which includes solvents and metal-rich
materials. In the household level, refrigerators, paints, cleaning
products, batteries and other automotive such as lubricants. Leachate
from landfills can be controlled the method of containment and
attenuation. In containment, gases and liquids produced in the landfill
are collected and under goes treatment and access of rainwater are
restricted to the wastes and prevent its movement to the ground
(Taylor n.d.). The second method that was used is attenuation or
dispersion, dilution and degradation where it allows the leachate to
migrate outward the landfill and takes advantage of
the natural subsurface processes of biodegradation, filtration, sorption
and ion exchange to attenuate the contaminants in leachate. This
method is based on the dilute and disperse principle of leachate
management proposed by Gray et al., (1974) (Taylor n.d.).

To

summarize, through these different strategies introduced leachate

from landfill can be reduced significantly and groundwaters quality will
not be altered negatively.
In a study of groundwater quality near a Municipal Landfill, Lagos,
Nigeri, it is said that the rate and characteristics of leachate
production depends on a number of factors such as solid waste
composition, particle size, degree of compaction, hydrology of site, age
of landfill, moisture and temperature conditions, and available oxygen
(Balogun 2010). The age of a landfill also significantly affects the
quantity of leachate formed. The ageing of a landfill is accompanied by
increased quantity of leachate. Leachate generated in the initial
period of waste deposition (up to 5 years) in landfills has pH- value
range of 3.7 to 6.5 indicating the presence of carboxylic acids and
bicarbonate ions. With time, pH of leachate becomes neutral or weakly
alkaline ranging between 7.0 and 7.6. Landfills exploited for long

period of time give rise to alkaline leachate with pH range of 8.0 to

8.5 (B. Somczyska* 2004).
In situations where there is leachate contaminating the aquifer or
threatening to do so, building of barriers to leachate migration may be
useful. It includes cutoff walls, trenches, and defense wells to abstract
leachate with high pollutant concentrations before the leachate plume
reaches the aquifer. Botswanas Guidelines for the Disposal of Waste
by Landfill highlights approaches towards incremental improvements.
The challenge is to select approaches that are workable in the longer
term even if they do not immediately meet optimal technical
standards.
Guidelines for the Disposal of Waste by Landfill, Preface (Frau
Dr. Margaret Nasha,
Ministry of Local Government, Republic of Botswana Republic
of Botswana, 1997)
The principal method of waste disposal in Botswana is by land burial.
The uncontrolled burial of waste however can lead to serious
groundwater pollution problems. For a country almost totally reliant on
its already scarce groundwater resources, it is important that the
standards of waste disposal by landfill are sufficiently improved to
minimize the risk of pollution to water resources, and furthermore to
public health and the degradation of natural resources. Water is a
public commodity, and it is not ours to pollute as we wish. Due to the
regional characteristics of water, any actions by users or polluters of a
water source, will affect other innocent persons downstream of that
source. Legislation is being drafted which will require all landfill sites
(as well as all waste facilities, transporters and even generators) to be
licensed. In this respect, it is essential that the licensing authority has
guidelines on which to base their licensing decisions, and the specific

licensing conditions which they are to impose on each individual

facility.
The underlying philosophy and guiding principles used in drawing up
the guidelines are that they should be:
- regionally compatible - to avoid the situation where Botswana could
become a dumping ground for the southern African region, merely
because it has lower environmental standards than neighboring
countries;
- specific to Botswana - to incorporate the specific social, cultural,
economic and political criteria within Botswana;
- affordable without compromising on risk - to provide optimum
protection of water resources.
Because of its sparse population, and the predominance of small
villages in the country, and being a largely arid country, a degree of
flexibility is needed in specifying requirements. A system of graded
standards has therefore been introduced, where the requirements
could be adjusted up or down according to the risk imposed. Graded
standards, an innovation developed and used extensively by the
authors of the South African minimum requirements for landfills, are
applied to different categories of landfill site (categorized according to
its risk of pollution) as defined by the type and the quantity of wastes
to be landfilled. In this way the standards for landfilling of waste can be
improved without incurring excessive development and operation
costs, and without subjecting the community to an unacceptable risk.
These guidelines are practical and specific to Botswana, yet regionally
compatible, and should be widely used by waste management
practitioners. The guidelines should be seen as a dynamic set of
requirements which will change with time, to reflect the latest in
relevant landfill technology as the results of world-wide landfill

research dictates. Thus the document should have a shelf life of

approximately 5 to 10 years before revising it to reflect the latest in
landfill technology and world-wide trends at that time.
Above are some of the guidelines in disposing waste in landfill in
Botswana that can also be applied to any community with regards to
the concern of waste management. If the problem in the landfills will
not be addressed properly to authorities greater chaos will occur such
as the pollution of groundwater which is our source of drinking water
that we are not only benefiting with but also the wildlife. Polluted
groundwater can also cause cancer when were too much exposed to it
basically because it contains hazardous contents and other health
diseases may also be adopted by humans when in contact with it
(Groundwater Corporation 1994) . In the present time, my hypothesis
is that

our groundwater is already polluted not only by waste from

landfill

but

also

those

from

the

roads,

hospitals

and

other

establishments due to the fact that waste generation is directly

proportional to population growth rate which also means industries.
Deterioration in the quality of groundwater can be avoided through
proper waste management in the community.

Works Cited
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characteristics of leachates from MSW landfills." Polish Journal of
Environmental Studies, 2004: 627-637.
Balogun, E.O. Longe and M.R. "Groundwater Quality Assessment near a
Municipal Landfill, Lagos, Nigeria." Research Journal of Applied Sciences,
Engineering and Technology 2(1): 39-44, 2010, 2010: 39-44.
Castro, Geoffrey. Clean Living. October 2006.
http://www.cleanhouston.org/living/features/landfills.htm (accessed
November 27, 2014).

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of Groundwater Quality Around Solid Waste Landfill Area - A Case Study."
International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and
Technology, 2013: 3131-3136.
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Protection Authority, 1996.
Groundwater Corporation. The Groundwater Foundation. 1994.
http://www.groundwater.org/get-informed/groundwater/contamination.html
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