Effect of the Soil in the Prevention of Groundwater Pollution from Sanitary Landfill Leachates

摘要

This study first investigated the characteristics of leachates from sanitary landfills, and then made core samples of different soils and studied their properties. Finally leachates were percolated through the soil columns to study the effects of the interaction of both materials. The study concluded that sanitary landfill leachate characteristics vary widely even at the same site. The Mayaguez site prevented most of the leachate from contaminating groundwater. Although three different soils used in the study showed varied behaviors with regard to the retention or release of different materials during the course of this project, the relative specific conductance in the filtered leachates approached a value of unity at about half way through the run. This seems to indicate that some sort of equilibrium was reached by means of which no more net transfer of soluble material occurred.