Landfill Waste Fire Effects Over Town Areas Under Rainwaters

Abstract

Identifying a dark brown color of the rainwater deposited on the streets after a landfill waste fire, the color persisting few months after the fire, an analysis of water samples collected from the streets after rainfall reveled characteristic compounds as for those resulted from urban waste combustion. A simulation of burning waste materials specific to be thrown on the landfill was conducted in the laboratory and the resulting ashes have been analyzed and compared with the dry material obtained from the rain waters collected. FTIR spectra of the two samples proved noticeable similarity among them, evidencing very toxic components, both organic and inorganic, among which dioxins and furans, sulfonic compounds, imines, imides, aromatic and aliphatic nitro and nitroso compounds, HCN and HNO3. Significant fluorescence intensity was determined for the rainwaters using LIF method and peaks specific to dioxin fluorophores were obtained in the resulted spectrum. Therefore, persistent pollution generated by garbage dumps fires is proven herein to affect both air and soil with the possibility to also contaminate town water supply, raising a major threat for human’s health, as well as for vegetation and all livings.