Abstract
The purpose of the present paper is to assess groundwater contamination by ammonium originating from the waste management site (including composting plant and the landfill) located in the vicinity of protected areas. In this paper, the impact of urban and industrial facilities adjacent to the landfill is also investigated. The analysis of ammonium concentration was carried out for selected piezometers and then the monitoring and laboratory tests results were referred to the Polish standards of groundwater quality. The content of the paper discusses the changes of ammonium concentration in time and space and presents potential reasons for these changes, especially resulting from the construction of the vertical bentonite barrier. The results show the significant decrease of ammonium concentration and progressive improvement of water quality observed in almost every piezometer after a few years since the vertical barrier has been installed. Furthermore, the paper provides statistical analyses of groundwater monitoring data from the period 1998–2015 in order to control the groundwater quality and assess the movement of contamination plume in the landfill area.
Highlights
Landfills, even when well organized, can cause many environmental nuisances worldwide [1,2,3,4,5]
The presented case study concerned the groundwater contamination from the landfill located in environmentally valuable area, which was one of the reasons why the remediation process was so important
The concentration of ammonium in samples collected from piezometers has been changing over the monitoring time
Summary
Even when well organized, can cause many environmental nuisances worldwide [1,2,3,4,5]. The leachate commonly contains large amounts of organic matter, ammonium, heavy metals, and chlorinated organic and inorganic salts, which cause a great threat to soil–water environment in the vicinity of a landfill site [16,17,18,19]. Ammoniacal nitrogen has a potential to act as one of the dominant environmental pollutants produced from landfills containing putrescible waste and poses problems for the management of all landfills. It has frequently been described as the most common pollutant of groundwater, emanating from landfills at concentrations of greater magnitude than emission of other nitrogen forms (N-NO3, and N-NO2) [7,23,24,25,26]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
