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The burial of municipal solid waste in landfills is the most common disposal alternative in
most countries. Landfill leachate is generated by excess rainwater percolating through the waste
layers in a landfill. A combination of physical, chemical, and microbial processes in the waste
transfer pollutants from the waste material to the percolating water. The biodegradability of
organic content in the MSW and the compaction of the waste layers make the landfill an
anaerobic environment, giving many similarities to the composition of leachates among different
landfills. Focusing on the most common type of landfill that receives a mixture of municipal,
commercial, and mixed industrial waste, but excludes significant amounts of concentrated specific
chemical waste, landfill leachate may be characterized as a water-based solution of four groups of
pollutants (dissolved organic matter, inorganic macro components, heavy metals, and xenobiotic
organic compounds).
The major potential environmental impacts related to landfill leachate are pollution of
groundwater and surface water. The risk of groundwater the pollution is probably the most severe
environmental impact from landfills because historically most landfills were built without
engineered liners and leachate collection systems. More recently, regulations in many countries
have required the installation of liners and leachate collection systems as well as a plan for
leachate treatment.
The major potential effects of a leachate release to surface water are expected to be
oxygen depletion in part of the surface waterbody, changes in the stream bottom fauna and flora
and ammonia and heavy metal toxicity.
This work is focused on changes of concentrations and forms of selected metals and
metalloids in landfill leachate from six landfills located in lubelskie voivodeship.
Investigations were carried out with using selected analytical techniques ICP-OES, ICP-MS
and GC-MS.
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