Estimations of heavy metals in soils and different landscape components within the municipal solid waste disposal areas

Abstract

The comprehensive geoecological study of the area closed to the north-western part of Landfill No 5 for the municipal solid waste disposal shows the ecologically negative impact on the environment. It is determined that the existing soils are affected by the significant geochemical transformation. They are characterized by the considerable accumulations of the heavy metals (HMs). In comparison with the conventional pure soils the soil contents of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr and Pb are 8, 12, 3, 2, 17 times more, respectively.The anomalous high HMs pollution for the bottom deposits is identified: for Zn – in 800 mg/kg that is 14 times more than maximum allowable concentrations (MAC); for Cu – 150 mg/kg that is 4.5 times more than MAC. Average Pb content there exceeds its MAC and is equal to 72 mg/kg. Therefore, the bottom deposits have the hazardous level of pollution.It is shown that the elements of considerable accumulations in grass vegetation are Cu, Cr and Ni at the biological absorption coefficient more 2.0.The physical and chemical studies of surface waters show that the contents of microelements (F, Cr, Ni, Cu, Fetot. and Pb) there don’t exceed the MAC, but they are higher than the background values.The comparison of the average chemical composition for the ground water samples from the wells of the Landfill area and the regulatory standards indicates that the standard general sanitary criteria for pollution level of these waters belong to the middle and high levels with the considerable exceeds of the MACs for Fe and Ni.