Assessment of Soil in the Vicinity of an Unengineered Landfill

Abstract

Soil represents a major sink for metals that are released into the environment from various sources, including landfills. Some of these metals may be persistent due to their fairly mobile nature; whereas others are more mobile and have the potential to leach through soil profile at a higher rate, reaching the groundwater. Thus, a pollution problem arises when heavy metals are mobilized into soil solutions and transported to groundwater. Therefore, soil analysis is essential for identifying the characteristics of soil in a study area, relating it to leachate and leachate percolation, and defining the extent of contamination, if any. Due to the growing concern about the risk of groundwater contamination in landfills areas, especially in the widely used unengineered landfills, soil from three newly constructed boreholes in the vicinity of the Al Amirat unengineered landfill in Muscat was examined to determine the extent of soil contamination. The soil assessment indicated that soil samples in the vicinity of Al Amirat landfill do not pose any toxicity because they are not considered hazardous. However, since most metals are mobile within the soil profile, an effect on groundwater might occur in the long run if no action is taken to prevent it.