CARACTERIZAÇÃO GEOFÍSICA DE ÁREAS UTILIZADAS PARA DISPOSIÇÃO DE RESÍDUOS SÓLIDOS URBANOS

Abstract

In recent years has been a steady increase in geoenvironmental engineering projects that deal with some kind of contaminant, leading to changes and enhancement in the site characterization techniques. One of the major concerns is the soil and water contamination caused by the waste disposal. In situ testing methods often provides good information about sites affected by groundwater contamination problem where stratigraphical, geotechnical, hydrogeological and other environmental informations are required on a specific and/or screening basis. Geophysical techniques is a good way to get some information required in a good site characterization program. This paper presents and compares results obtained by characterization programs carried out in a deactivated waste landfill and in the actual sanitary landfill areas, in Ribeirao Preto region, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the first site domestic waste were inappropriate disposed in an area constituted by porous soils overlapping sandstones of Botucatu Formation. The actual sanitary landfill operates according to technical rules in a favorable area, composed by clayey residual soil from basalts of the Serra Geral Formation. The site characterization program included geoelectrical sounding and profiling surveys. The results showed that integrating this geophysical techniques and elaborating a rational planning it is possible to assess the volume of waste, flow path and evaluate the environmental impact caused by the waste disposal.