Hazards associated with municipal waste storage. Vol. I

The Main School of Fire Service of Fire, Faculty Safety Engineering, 52/54 Slowackiego St., 01-629 Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: admochowska@sgsp.edu.pl

Abstract

Depositing municipal waste in a responsible and controlled manner in landfills allows their decomposition to stabilized material. However, there are many environmental risks during operation and stabilization after landfill closure. These include: dusts, odors, potential fires associated with the presence of landfill gas and it is microbiological hazards and leachates. The latter are also generated many years after closure and reclamation of the landfill. In the event of a leak trough the anti-filtration shutter, toxic compounds found in the leachates can migrate and contaminate to groundwater. The article presents the quantitative and qualitative analysis of leachates in the final operational period of the landfill and after its closure. In both cases, the chromatographic analysis was carried out using the same conditions, i.e. solvent, extraction time, chromatograph and conditions for chromatographic analysis of samples. Physical and chemical leachate examinations were performed on the basis of valid standards. Their results show that the waste deposit is subject to increasingly advanced biodegradation processes of organic compounds. The values of such indicators as COD and BZT₅ are decreasing. However, they remain quite significant, which indicates the presence of hard-to decompose and newly compounds in the leachates.