April 2011, Volume 2, No.

2
International Journal of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Impact of Solid Waste Leachate on Ground Water

Sources-A Case Study
Anita Agrawal*1 Rama Pandey 2, M.L. Agrawal 3
1
.Reader and Head of the Dept., Chemistry Lakhmi Chand Institute of Technology, Bilspur
2.Prof. & Head, Dept of Chemistry Pt. R. S. University, Raipur
3.Principal, Lakhmi Chand Institute of Technology, Bilspur

* Corresponding author: anita_mla@yahoo.co.in

Abstract
Ill-managed municipal solid waste particularly in developing countries like India, have lead to the serious socio-environmental
problem. Due to limited financial resources, it is given least priority to municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in India. The
current practice of uncontrolled dumping of waste on the outskirts of towns/cities has created a serious environmental and public
health problem. The municipal solid waste dump when comes in contact with the rainwater, generate leachate. It is important to know
the characteristics of this leachate for effective management of solid waste dumps as well as to evaluate the probable impacts of this
leachate on ground water sources and surrounding environment. The assessment of impacts on ground water sources near to MSW
dumps is of considerable importance in management and disposal of solid waste. The leachate may greatly affect the ground water
sources near to the dumpsites. In the present study an attempt has been made to investigate the relationship between the characteristics
of leachate generated from municipal solid waste and its impact on surrounding ground water sources.

Keywords: Municipal solid waste (MSW) dumps, Leachate characteristics, Ground water pollution.

1. Introduction which is collected, is dumped on land in a more or less

Increased rate of exploitation of natural resources and
generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) is the result
of rapid population growth and urbanization in
developing countries. The solid waste disposal in open
dumps is a very common feature in developing countries.
With increased population, urbanization, and
industrialization the quantum of MSW generated
increased many fold and it is beyond the assimilation
capacity of nature. The solid waste dumps if not managed
properly, may cause many types of socio-environmental
problems [1], like ground water pollution, air pollution,
soil contamination, odour nuisance, fly nuisance etc.
Increasing awareness for health and environmental effects
of MSW dumping has the requirement for proper
assessment of harmful effects of it.
The quantum of municipal solid waste generated in
India is about 0.15 million tonnes per day. That is
approximately 50 million tonnes annually. Out of the total
municipal waste collected, on an average 94% is dumped
on land and 5% is composted. The average rate of MSW
generation (0.35 to 0.6 kg/ person/day) is very low as
compared to developed countries, but due to rapid growth
of population and increased urbanization solid waste
generated is of very large amount. In most of the cities
and towns the MSW is dumped on low-lying area without
following the guidelines for safe disposal of solid waste
[2]. Most of the municipal solid waste of Indian cities,
uncontrolled manner. The placement and compaction of
municipal wastes in landfills facilitates the development
of facultative and anaerobic conditions that promotes
biological decomposition of land filled wastes. Such
inadequate waste disposal creates serious environmental
problems that affect health of humans and animals and
cause serious economic and other welfare losses.
As water filters through any material, chemicals in the
material may dissolve in the water, this process is called
leaching and the resulting mixture is called leachate. As
water percolates through MSW, it makes a leachate that
consists of decomposing organic matter combined with
different metals from rusting cans, discarded batteries and
appliances [3]. It may also contain paints, pesticides,
cleaning fluids, newspaper inks, and other chemicals as
well as bacteria and viruses. Leachate is produced when
the waste becomes saturated with water [4]. The leachate
generated from solid waste dumps may have the potential
to pollute the surrounding water sources and
contamination of soil also [5]. The most serious problem
is groundwater contamination [6]. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that
between 0.1% and 0.4% of usable surface aquifers are
contaminated by industrial impoundments and landfills.
The adverse impact on the surrounding atmosphere due to
leachate will depend on the characteristics of this leachate
[7]. So it becomes very important to assess the
 characteristics of the leachate generated as well as the
relationship between the characteristics of leachate and its
impact on water quality of the surrounding sources.
2. Material and Method
2.1 Study Area location
Study area was taken for MSW dumps of Raipur
town. Raipur is in Chhattisgarh state of India, with a
population of 1 million (approx.) having latitude of
21o14’ N and longitude of 81o38’ E. It is on Bombay-
Hawrah main railway route. It sprawls over a radius of 8-
10 km and experiences a mainly tropical climate with an
estimated annual rainfall of about 1250 mm. In order to
determine the characteristics of leachate generated from
MSW dumps.
Gudhiyari
Dumping
Site
Rawan Bhatha
Dumping Site
Fig 1: Location Map of MSW Dumping Sites of Raipur City
Two locations of the MSW dumps were selected for
this study namely- Rawan bhata and Gudhiyari. These
MSW dumps are located on the outskirt of the city as
shown in Fig 1. These landfill sites are owned by
Municipal Corporation of Raipur. Landfill sites are not
properly managed since the operational practices at the
site do not follow the standard, normal practices but these
landfill are nothing more than random dumping of solid
waste in uncontrolled manner without any engineered
design. Both landfill cover about 4 hectares of land with
solid wastes having being deposited to an estimated
average depth of about 1.5 meters. It has been used for
municipal solid waste disposal for over 5 years. It
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receives domestic, commercial and institutional wastes by
public and private users.
In the areas surrounding to these MSW dumps, three
types of water sources were found to be in use and thus
these three kinds of water sources were selected, for
taking water samples, namely- open wells (all depth less
than 20m), shallow tube wells (depth less than 20m), and
Deep tube wells (India Mark-II hand pumps) having
depth more than 50m. Deep tube wells are developed by
Government of India for providing safe drinking water to
the mass population..
2.2. Sampling and analysis
Sampling was done in the month of June-July (rainy
season) to assess the worst possible scenario. More than
10 samples were collected from each dumpsite and more
than 400 samples were collected for drinking water. Glass
bottles were used to collect leachate and groundwater
samples for chemical analyses, whereas, samples
preserved for BOD5 and COD tests were collected in
polyethylene bottles covered with aluminum foils. A few
drops of concentrated nitric acid were added to all the
water samples collected for heavy metals analysis to
preserve the samples. The samples were then transported

Gudhiyari
Dumping
Site
Open well Shallow Tube well
Fig 2: Location Map of Drinking Water Sampling Points Surrounding to MSW Dumps
in a cool box and stored under suitable temperature until
analysis
Samples of leachate as well as of water were analyzed
as per the methodologies mentioned in Standard Methods
[8]. Parameters analyzed were, a) Temperature, b) Total
Dissolved Solids (TDS) c) Total alkalinity, d) Total
hardness, e) Chloride contents, f) Dissolved Oxygen
(DO), g) Turbidity, h) pH, i) Electrical conductivity (EC),
and j) Most Probable Number (MPN), k) Heavy metals
[5, 9].
Chloride was measured by the mercuric nitrate
titrimetric method. dissolved oxygen by Winkler’s
method, alkalinity by simple titrimetric method, hardness
by EDTA titrimetric method, pH by using digital pH
meter (HACH make), turbidity by using nephelometric
turbidity meter (Toshniwal make), electrical conductivity
by using conductivity meter (HACH make) and for Most
Probable Number (MPN) Nine tubes of lactose broth
were prepared according to the size of the water sample
i.e., 0.1, 1 and 10 mL respectively for all water samples.
The test tubes were placed in incubator at 35ºC for 24 h
for gas production. BOD was determined by Winkler’s
method and COD by using HACH, COD reactor. For
determination of heavy metals (Iron, Lead, Zink, Nickel)
in leachate samples, Atomic Absorption
Spectrophotometer (Varian make) was used.
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Rawan
Bhatha
Dumping
Site
Deep Tube well
3. Result and Discussion
3.1. Leachate Characteristics:
The results of the parameters analyzed for 5 samples
from each MSW dump (Rawan Bhatha and Gudhiyari)
are shown in Table 1. The pH values for all samples are in
the limit of 6-8,temperature in the range of 24.5-26.5 0C.
TDS in case of Rawan Bhatha site is higher (4090-5860)
as compared to Gudhiyari site (2090-4069). Total
alkalinity is lower for leachate from Rawan Bhatha site
(1056-1545) as compared to Gudhiyari site (1089-1609).
Total hardness for leachate samples from Rawan Bhatha
site varies in the range (780-965) and for Gudhiyari site it
is (544-1034). Chloride content of leachate samples
shows similar trend for both the sites and varies in the
range (327-745). BOD5 of leachate from Rawan Bhatha
site are higher (6345-9430) as compared to that of
Gudhiyari site (4078-8790). COD for both sites are nearly
in the same range (8769-13760). Turbidity of leachate
samples was quite high in the range of (89-210).
Electrical Conductivity of leachate samples from Rawan
Bhatha were found higher (2038-2706) as compared to
that from Gudhiyari site (1256-2389). MPN of the
leachate samples from Rawan Bhatha site was also higher
(108-156) as compared to that of Gudhiyari site (54-83).
All four heavy metals (Iron, Lead, Zinc and Nickel) were
found in all samples of leachate from both sites in varying
concentrations. In general the leachate quality from
Rawan Bhatha MSW dump site was found to be more
polluted as compared to that of Gudhiyari site.
Table 1 Characteristics of leachate from MSW du
S.No. Parameter Samples from Rawan Bhatha Site Samples from Gudhiyari Site

Sample No 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
0
1 Temperature ( C) 24.5 25 24.5 25 25.5 26.0 24.5 26.5 25.5 25.5
2 TDS (mg/L) 4400 4090 5860 5340 4210 2090 3567 2789 3245 4069
3 Total Alkalinity (mg/L) as CaCO3 1270 1056 1348 1250 1545 1345 1567 1234 1089 1609
4 Total Hardness (mg/L) as CaCO3 965 870 780 913 840 1034 770 544 679 987
5 Chlorides (mg/L) 416 567 327 657 543 456 589 745 409 653
6 BOD5 (mg/L) 8650 9430 7640 6345 9070 4078 6453 8790 7435 5674
7 COD (mg/L) 12089 13760 12655 11756 12980 8769 12456 12307 11678 9834
8 Turbidity (NTU) 200 170 90 210 160 123 132 89 107 156
9 pH 6.0 6.5 7.5 7.0 8.0 6.5 6.0 7.5 7.0 6.0
10 EC (mho/cm) 2430 2655 2038 2706 2255 1340 1256 2389 1367 1875

11 MPN/100ml 127 108 156 134 148 67 83 54 60 74

12 Heavy metals (mg/L)
(a) Iron 23.7 13.2 26.7 16.4 11.2 16.3 08.6 13.7 10.6 18.8
(b) Lead
(c) Zinc 0.30 0.20 0.45 0.15 0.25 0.25 0.10 0.15 0.15 0.20
(d) Nickel 1.20 0.95 1.60 2.30 0.85 1.30 0.90 1.25 0.85 1.05
0.10 0.09 0.06 0.90 0.15 0.07 0.15 0.09 0.10 0.08

3.2. Water quality of different sources:
Water quality parameters observed in the water
samples from different ground water sources (open wells,
shallow tube wells and deep tube wells) surrounding to
Rawan Bhatha MSW dump are shown in Table 2 and
similarly for ground water sources surrounding to
Gudhiyari MSW Dump are shown in Table 3. The ground
water sources are segmented as per their horizontal
distance from the dumps in 4 segments (0-10m, 11-20m,
21-50m, 51-80m). In general the values of all the
parameters are highest near to MSW dumps except the
values of DO and pH.
As the distance from MSW dumps increases the
parameter values are decreasing. The values of turbidity
and MPN are found to be critical near to MSW dumps but
after a distance of 80m it reduces.
The values of water quality parameters shown in
Table 2 and Table 3 depicts that the effect of leachate on
water quality parameters of the water sources in
surrounding of MSW dump is remarkable. The impact is
observed to be in the order of Open well > Shallow tube
well > Deep tube well.
3.3. Comparison of water quality with Indian standards of
quality:
An Indian standard for drinking water quality
given by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS
10500:1991) is shown in Table 4. On comparing the
water quality of the ground water sources in the
surroundings of MSW dumps with the water quality
standards mentioned in Table 4, several parameters
like- alkalinity, turbidity and MPN were found to be
critical and rest of the other parameters like-
temperature, TDS, total hardness, chlorides, DO,
pH, electrical conductivity were found to be in
permissible limits. In case of open wells and shallow
tube wells, MPN is more than the permissible value
(i.e. zero) for almost every sample; it indicates the
alarming situation against water born diseases in
these areas. Water qualities of deep tube wells are
comparatively safer as compared to open wells and
shallow tube wells.

Table 2: Qualities of different water Sources at different distance

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S.No. Parameter Samples from Open Wells Samples from Shallow Tube wells Samples from Deep Tube wells
(depth < 20 m) (depth >50 m)
Distance of 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80
Sampling site in m
1 Temperature (0C) 23 23 23 23 24 23 24 24 25 25 24 25
2 TDS (mg/L) 234 201 170 86 203 187 156 65 176 156 155 146
3 Total Alkalinity 750 730 693 656 653 603 545 456 432 303 245 256
(mg/L) as CaCO3
4 Total Hardness 406 374 233 203 306 374 204 156 268 217 234 189
(mg/L) as CaCO3
5 Chlorides (mg/L) 132 123 110 98 105 98 76 78 57 48 46 38
6 Dissolved Oxygen 6.8 6.8 7.0 6.5 5.4 5.7 5.9 5.8 5.1 5.3 5.4 5.4
(mg/L)
7 Turbidity (NTU) 24 17 13 9 10 9 6 1 6 5 3 1
8 pH 7.2 7.3 7.3 7.2 6.9 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.2 6.3 6.3 6.4
9 EC (mho/cm) 403 356 324 198 380 345 289 124 320 290 298 267
10 MPN/100ml 13 07 03 03 07 05 02 Nil 02 01 Nil Nil

Table 3: Qualities of different water Sources at different distances from Gudhiyari MSW dumps

S.No. Test Samples from Open Wells Samples from Shallow Tube Samples from Deep Tube wells (depth
wells (depth < 20 m) >50 m)
Distance of 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80 0-10 11-20 21-50 51-80
Sampling site in m
1 Temperature (0C) 23 23.5 23 23.5 24 23.5 24 23 24.5 24 23.5 24
2 TDS (mg/L) 197 87 73 56 184 165 136 45 123 108 101 89
3 Total Alkalinity 550 634 367 312 456 407 397 378 356 267 209 178
(mg/L) as CaCO3

4 Total Hardness 356 323 209 178 267 304 209 128 189 217 178 156
(mg/L) as CaCO3

5 Chlorides (mg/L) 98 78 73 76 96 67 72 54 48 43 39 23
6 Dissolved Oxygen 6.1 5.6 6.4 6.5 5.3 5.5 5.8 5.8 5.3 5.6 5.8 5.6
(mg/L)

7 Turbidity (NTU) 18 13 10 7 08 9 6 3 5 5 2 Nil

8 pH 7.2 7.3 7.3 7.2 6.8 6.9 6.8 6.9 6.6 6.5 6.3 6.7
9 EC (mho/cm) 324 206 200 145 276 267 238 203 278 254 212 167
10 MPN/100ml 09 05 02 01 06 03 02 Nil 01 01 Nil Nil

3.4. Comparison of water quality with Indian standards of limits. In case of open wells and shallow tube wells, MPN
quality: is more than the permissible value (i.e. zero) for almost
An Indian standard for drinking water quality given every sample; it indicates the alarming situation against
by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS 10500:1991) is water born diseases in these areas. Water qualities of deep
shown in Table 4. On comparing the water quality of the tube wells are comparatively safer as compared to open
ground water sources in the surroundings of MSW dumps wells and shallow tube wells.
with the water quality standards mentioned in Table 4,
several parameters like- alkalinity, turbidity and MPN
were found to be critical and rest of the other parameters
like- temperature, TDS, total hardness, chlorides, DO, pH,
electrical conductivity were found to be in permissible

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the water sources in surrounding of MSW dump is 1190-1197.
remarkable. The impact is observed to be in the order of
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quantity in the samples of leachate from both the
locations, this may be due to the fact that town does not
have separate dumping site for hazardous waste generated
from useless mobile batteries, computer peripherals and
other electronic appliances. During percolation of
leachate through soil, its characteristics changes due to
physical, chemical and biological forces before it
contaminates the ground water hence the distance is
important. The characteristics of leachate from Rawan
Bhatha dump are found to be more critical (for all three
types of sources) as compared to the same from Gudhiyari
dumping site. The pollution of water sources in the
surrounding area of dumps are also in the agreement with
corresponding leachate characteristic. It is recommended
that no human settlement should be allowed up to a
minimum distance of 100m from MSW dumping sites.

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