Geochemical characterisation and geophysical mapping of Landfill leachates: the Marozzo canal case study (NE Italy)

Abstract

An integrated approach including geochemical analyses and geophysical investigations, aimed at characterizing the chemical composition of leachate and at highlighting the extent and magnitude of the plume in terms of spatial distribution is presented. The reason for the specific induced polarisation behaviour over landfills was not well understood. In this work we propose an explanation for this behaviour, which is being used to detect the presence of possible leaks and to track and delimit the pollution plume for several years. As a case study the example of an abandoned municipal solid waste landfill, located in Comacchio County, NE Italy, is presented, where the operative conditions for any resistivity monitoring method were to be excluded because of the high salinity of the phreatic aquifer.