North Carolina Sanitary Landfills: Leachate Generation, Management and Water Quality Impacts

摘要

The most widely used method of solid waste disposal in North Carolina is burial in unlined municipally operated sanitary landfills (SLFs). A statistical analysis of existing surface- and groundwater monitoring data from 71 municipal sanitary landfills was performed to assess the impact of North Carolina SLFs on surface- and groundwater quality. A total of 322 surface and 411 groundwater quality records was analyzed using the SAS data system. Almost all the landfill records included inorganic and heavy metal analyses while approximately half of the records also include organic scans by GC/MS. Groundwater quality violations were detected for organic or inorganic pollutants at 53% of the landfills examined with adequate monitoring data. The severity of groundwater contamination at SLFs appears to be highly variable. At many of the landfills with groundwater quality problems, a 50% reduction in pollutant concentration would eliminate all violations. At a few isolated landfills, extremely high concentration of organic and inorganic pollutants has been detected. At these landfills, greater than 99.99% reductions would be required to meet existing standards. The results suggests that: most landfills do contaminate groundwater; the severity of contamination is highly variable; and the existing monitoring program is reasonably effective at detecting widespread trends.