Abstract
The study was conducted around a reclaimed municipal landfill site, located in the suburbs of Otwock, about 25 km south-west of Warsaw (Poland). The research was carried out about 15 years after the landfill site ceased operation. According to the regulations on landfills sites in Poland (J. of Laws of 2002 No. 220 item 1858, Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 9 December 2002 on the scope, time, manner and conditions of landfill monitoring; J. of Laws of 2010 No. 238 item 1588, Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 8 December 2010 amending the regulation on the scope, time, manner and conditions of landfill monitoring), the monitoring period will end in 2021. Despite reclamation, the landfill site still affects the environment. The aim of this study was to assess the geochemical maturation of the stored waste and the landfill site activity by determining the current phase of the landfill site lifetime. This was achieved by means of non-standard application of carbon stable isotopes for the assessment of the landfill activity combined with conventional methods for measuring COD, BOD, DOC, BOD/COD ratio, and H2S and O2 content in biogas. An analysis of carbon isotopic composition and COD, BOD, DOC of the leachate-contaminated groundwater and O2 concentration in biogas indicated that the landfill site was between the methanogenic phase and air intrusion phase. However, BOD/COD ratio and H2S concentration in the biogas suggested that the landfill site is still active and the wastes contain readily biodegradable organic matter. The impact of the landfill site on the environment seems quite significant. In this case, and in other situations when the impact of a landfill site on the environment is high after the post-closure stage, the monitoring period should be extended.
Highlights
Despite waste sorting schemes and partial recycling, a considerable amount of waste is stored in the landfill sites
Numerous biogas and groundwater components were analyzed for the Otwock landfill site but the paper presents only the parameters directly related to the assessment of the landfill site geochemical maturation and its activity. pH of the groundwater measured in the field ranged from 7.32 to 7.76 (Table 1). d13CDIC varied from ?3.6 to -3.5 % (Fig. 2)
The results presented below indicate that the landfill site is on the verge of the stable methanogenic phase and air intrusion phase, and not in the initial methanogenesis phase, when the carbon isotopic signature could be similar
Summary
Despite waste sorting schemes and partial recycling, a considerable amount of waste is stored in the landfill sites. According to the Polish regulations (J. of Laws of 2002 No 220 item 1858; J. of Laws of 2010 No 238 item 1588), the post-closure stage is a period of 30 years, counted from the day of the landfill closing decision. During this period, biogas and leachate production must be monitored every 6 months. Biogas and leachate production must be monitored every 6 months According to this regulation, the post-closure stage for the Otwock landfill site covers a period from 1991 to 2021. In Otwock, and in other cases where the impact of
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