Pharmaceuticals and Other Organic Waste Water Contaminants Within a Leachate Plume Downgradient of a Municipal Landfill

Ground water samples collected from the Norman Landfill research site in central Oklahoma were analyzed as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Toxic Substances Hydrology Program's national reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals and other organic waste water contaminants (OWCs) in ground water. Five sites, four of which are located downgradient of the landfill, were sampled in 2000 and analyzed for 76 OWCs using four research methods developed by the USGS. OWCs were detected in water samples from all of the sites sampled, with 22 of the 76 OWCs being detected at least once. Cholesterol (a plant and animal steroid), was detected at all five sites and was the only compound detected in a well upgradient of the landfill. N,N-diethyltoluamide (DEBT used in insect repellent) and tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (fire-retardant) were detected in water samples from all four sites located within the landfill-derived leachate plume. The sites closest to the landfill had more detections and greater concentrations of each of the detected compounds than sites located farther away. Detection of multiple OWCs occurred in the four sites located within the leachate plume, with a minimum of four and a maximum of 17 OWCs detected. Because the landfill was established in the 1920s and closed in 1985, many compounds detected in the leachate plume were likely disposed of decades ago. These results indicate the potential for long-term persistence and transport of some OWCs in ground water.     

Decision Analysis for Leachate Control at a Fractured Rock Landfill

The municipal landfill at the Complexe Environnemental de Saint-Michel (CESM) in Montreal, which is the third largest in North America, is located in a former quarry in fractured limestone. Impressive measures are taken to monitor and control biogas and leachate generated at the site. Leachate containment is presently performed with a pumping well completed within the waste. The efficiency of the well in controlling off-site leachate migration is questioned because field observations strongly suggest that the nearby former Francon quarry is diverting local ground water flow. To address this issue, four additional hydraulic control options are considered: (1) increased pumping at the existing waste well; (2) new pumping wells in the rock on the eastern limit of the site; (3) new injection wells in the rock on the eastern limit; and (4) combination of new injection wells at the same location and new water supply wells upgradient of the landfill. We evaluated the four hydraulic control options at the CESM using two coupled models: (1) a decision model based on an objective function weighting the risk, costs, and benefits of each option translated into dollar units; and (2) a numerical ground water flow model to represent the effect of operational conditions and ascertain success. Decision analysis offers a quantitative unbiased tool to evaluate the potential and relative cost of each option, but qualitative considerations and judgment still must be used for a complete evaluation. Our analysis confirms that scenario 4, which was the intuitively favored option, represents the best containment strategy.     

Risk-Based Engineering Design for a Landfill Leachate Collection and Liner System

A methodology is used to identify the tradeoffs between costs and exposure risk associated with landfill leachate collection and low permeable systems. The results are useful in demonstrating the point at which additional levels of sophistication in design of a leachate/liner system do not produce significant reductions of exposure risk. The case study application to the Durham Regional landfill demonstrates that clay liner hydraulic conductivity is the parameter with the largest influence on the risk of exceedance at the point of compliance. When the underlying clay is more permeable, there is a significant merit associated with use of a QA/QC program.     

Landfill Leachate Treatment: A Case Study for Istanbul City

One of the most important problems arising from landfilling solid wastes is the leachate which contains high amount of pollution. Discharge of leachate without treatment causes negative effects on environmental and public health. In this study, parameters of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH₄‐N), and total phosphorus (TP) were examined in the samples taken from the influent and effluent of leachate treatment plant, where Odayeri landfill leachate is treated. Obtained results showed that the treatment plant, which consisted of preanoxic biological treatment system, ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) units were operating with high efficiency. Among the examined parameters during study, COD, TN, NH₄‐N, and TP were found to be treated at the rate of 99, 94.5, 99, and 93.8%, respectively. Landfilling is increasing rapidly in the world and this consequently brings the need of leachate treatment facilities. Therefore, this study is considered to be a guide for construction and operation stages of proposed new treatment plants.     

Nitrogen Removal from Landfill Leachate Using an Infiltration Bed Coupled with a Denitrification Barrier

Treatment of nitrogen in landfill leachate has received considerable attention recently because of the relatively low levels at which some nitrogen species (i.e., NH3) can be toxic to aquatic life forms. This study reports on the results of a three-year, pilot-scale field trial demonstrating the use of infiltration bed and nitrate barrier technology to achieve nitrogen removal in landfill leachate. The infiltration bed comprises an unsaturated sand layer overlying a saturated layer of waste cellulose solids (sawdust), which acts as a carbon source for heterotrophic denitrification. When loaded at a rate of 1 to 3 cm/day, the infiltration bed was successful at lowering leachate inorganic nitrogen (NH₄⁺+ NO₃^-) levels averaging 24.8 mg/L N by 89%, including 96% in the third year of operation. The surface water discharge criteria for un-ionized ammonia (NH3) were met on all occasions in the treated leachate during the second and third years of operation. Nitrogen attenuation is presumed to occur by a two-step process in which leachate NH₄⁺ is first oxidized to NO₃^- in the unsaturated sand layer and then is converted to nitrogen gas (N₂) by denitrification occurring in the underlying sawdust layer. Mass balance calculations suggest that the sawdust layer has sufficient carbon to allow denitrification to proceed for long periods (1.0 to 30 years) without replenishment. Because this technology is simple to construct and is relatively maintenance free, it should be attractive for use at smaller landfills where the installation of conventional treatment plants may not be feasible.     

Elements in Cottonwood Trees as an Indicator of Ground Water Contaminated by Landfill Leachate

Ground water at the Norman Landfill Research Site is contaminated by a leachate plume emanating from a closed, unlined landfill formerly operated by the city of Norman, Oklahoma, Ground water contaminated by the leachate plume is known to be elevated in the concentration of many, organic and inorganic constituents. Specific conductance, alkalinity, chloride, dissolved organic carbon, boron, sodium, strontium, and deuterium in ground water are considered to be indicators of the leachate plume at this site.
Leaf samples of broad-leafed cottonwood, Populus deltoides , were collected from 57 sites around the closed landfill. Cottonwood, a phreatophyte or "well plant," functions as a & surrogate well and serves as a ground water quality sampler. The leaf samples were combusted to ash and analyzed by instrumental neutron activation for 35 elements and by prompt-gamma instrumental neutron activation, for boron. A monitoring well was located within a few meters of a sampled cottonwood tree at 15 of the 57 sites, and ground water samples were collected from these monitoring wells simultaneously with a leaf sample. The chemical analyses of the ground water and leaf samples from these 15 sites indicated that boron, bromine, sodium, and strontium concentrations in leaves were significantly correlated with leachate indicator constituents in ground water. A point-plot map of selected percentiles indicated high concentrations of boron, bromine, and sodium in leaf ash from sites downgradient of the most recent landfill and from older landfills nearby.
Data from leaf analysis greatly extended the known areal extent of the leachate plume previously determined from a network of monitoring wells and geophysical surveys. This phytosgeochemical study provided a cost-effective method for assessing the extent of a leachate plume from an old landfill. Such a method may be useful as a preliminary sampling tool to guide the design of hydrogeochemical and geophysical studies.     

Low-Cost On-Site Treatment of Landfill Leachate Using Infiltration Beds: Preliminary Field Trial

A small-scale field experiment was carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of using septic system -type infiltration beds for on-site treatment of landfill leachate. Using an infiltration bed with a 3-m-thick vadose zone of medium sand, and loaded at a rate 01 18 cm/day, a treatment efficiency of >99 percent was obtained for Fe, 94 percent for NH₄⁺, and 54 percent for dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Attenuation occurred during one- to two-day residency in the aerobic vadose zone (pore gas O₂ > 12 percent by volume) as a result of oxidation reactions that caused nitrification of NH₄⁺, convened Fe²⁺ to Fe³⁺ allowing subsequent precipitation of sparingly soluble Fe oxyhydroxide minerals, and biodegraded DOC. Attenuation of an aerobically degradable trace volatile organic compound (dichlorobenzene) was also noted, although other less degradable compounds (trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene) persisted.
Fe mineral precipitation caused a discontinuous hardpan layer to occur in the zone immediately below the infiltration pipes. However, this layer did not become impermeable or continuous enough to significantly impede infiltration during the 82-day experiment.
Advantages of this technology for leachate treatment are that it is low cost, it is simple to construct and operate. and treatment occurs on-site, avoiding the cost of transporting leachate off-site for treatment.     

Metagenomic Analysis of Bacterial Communities from a Nitrification–Denitrification Treatment of Landfill Leachates

The efficiency of the biological removal of carbon and nitrogen from leachates is determined by the activity of microbial populations present in biological reactors. In this work, a complete characterization of bacterial communities revealed by personal genome machine sequencing (PGM) has been carried out from different points of a nitrification–denitrification process operated in an urban landfill. The leachate fed to the treatment is a mixture of young leachate, old leachate, and effluent from an anaerobic digestion process, in a volume ratio of 1:0.9:0.12, respectively. The anoxic and oxic reactors are followed by an ultrafiltration step. Samples are taken from different points of the process. Results reveal the microbial diversity of the samples, which include detection of minority populations that are difficult to explore by other methods. Bacteria belonging to Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria are dominant in all the samples analyzed. Proteobacteria represents more than 50% of the total population in all cases. Samples taken after the biological treatment show a significant reduction in the relative abundance of Firmicutes, Tenericutes, and Lentisphaerae phyla in comparation with the initial leachate. The relative abundance of the classes is also studied and the most abundant in the samples are β‐Proteobacteria and Flavobacteria.     

Procedures for Sampling Deep Subsurface Microbial Communities in Unconsolidated Sediments

A corehole sampling project utilizing a wireline coring system provided sediment samples for microbiological characterization from deep unconsolidated sediments. Sampling tools were developed or modified to minimize contamination during sample acquisition and to facilitate stringent decontamination requirements. Quality assurance procedures, including the use of tracers, were implemented to minimize and quantify contamination from drilling hardware, drilling fluids and sample processing. Tracers included microspheres, potassium bromide, rhodamine dye, and perfluorocarbons, which enabled the detection and measurement of 1mg of drilling fluid per kg of sediment. In addition, sample processing was performed on-site in an anaerobic chamber to prevent exposure of the subsurface materials to atmospheric oxygen concentrations. Sediment samples were then disbursed to investigators at National Laboratories and universities funded through the Department of Energy Subsurface Science Microbiology Program for microbiological characterization. Results of these efforts demonstrated that representative subsurface samples were collected and disbursed.