Monitoring of the process of waste landfill leachate diffusion in clay and sandy soil

The objective of this research was to evaluate the interaction of landfill leachate of urban solid waste in clayey (CL) and sandy soils (SL) in order to determine physical and chemical parameters that can be used as indicators of soil contamination when there are faults in the landfill waterproofing. In the diffusion tests, compacted soil samples were placed in contact with leachate (methanogenic phase). The temporal analysis (200 days) considered the parameters pH, electrical conductivity (EC), alkalinity, nitrogen series, chemical oxygen demand (COD), solids and color for the leachate and pH, ΔpH, EC, total nitrogen (TN), chemical elements, and cation exchange capacity (CEC) for the soils. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to results. It was observed that the studied soils have potential to attenuate chemicals present in the leachate; this indicates the possibility of using them as base in landfills. Correlation analysis and PCA carried out to CL showed that in a process of CL monitoring the pH would be the key parameter to indicate contamination of this soil, due to the high correlation of this parameter with the others analyzed. For the SL, the parameters pH, alkalinity, apparent color, and COD (total and filtered) could be used as indicators of contamination. In both soils, monitoring of concentrations of Ca, Mg, K, SB, V , and CTC can be used to indicate possible faults in the waterproofing system of the landfill.