Assessing the potential for attenuation of organic substances within mineral landfill liners

摘要

Organic contaminants (e.g. toluene and Mecoprop) are ubiquitous in leachates from biodegradable waste landfills in the UK. The recently introduced Landfill Regulations and the Groundwater Regulations prohibit the entry of these List I substances into groundwater. In landfills, low permeability liners are used as a barrier to reduce the flow of leachate into groundwater, and may also reduce the concentration of such contaminants by attenuation processes such as sorption or biodegradation. However, little is known about the attenuation of organic compounds in landfill liners, and it is necessary to gain an improved understanding of these processes in order to be able to predict their effectiveness over time. The paper briefly describes a programme of research which will extend our understanding of attenuation of organic compounds in landfill liners, and experimental tests which will be used to quantify biodegradation rates and sorption coefficients for common List I organic substances in UK leachates in environmental conditions typical of UK liner materials.