Leachates landfills

Fig. 3. pH Dependence of total organic carbon (TOC) decay during the photooxidation of a landfill leachate using H2O2/uv. Initial TOC concentration,... 

These include wastewater cleanup for electroplating (75—78), radioactive processing (79—82), landfill leachate (76,83), and municipal wastewater (84—87) ultrapure water production for electronics-grade (88,89), laboratory-grade (90), and pharmaceutical-grade (91) materials and food processing (qv) (9). 

Leachate in landfills. Leachate may be defined as hquid that has percolated through sohd waste and has extracted dissolved or suspended materials from it. In most landfills, the liqiiid portion of the leachate is composed of the liquid produced from the decomposition of the wastes and liquid that has entered the landfill from external sources, such as surface drainage, rainfall, groundwater, and water form underground springs. Representative data on chemical characteristics of leachate are reported in Table 25-72. 

Mureebe, A.K., D.A. Busch and P.T. Chen. Anaerobic Biological Treatment of Sanitary Landfill Leachate. In Hazardous Wastes and Hazardous Materials, Atlanta, Georgia, 1986. 

Ying, W.C., R.R. Bonk and S.A. Sojka. Treatment of Landfill Leachate in Powered Activated Carbon Enhanced Sequencing Batch Bioreactors. In Proc. of the 18th Mid-Atlantic Ind. Waste Conference, Technomic Publishing Company, Inc., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1986. 

A screening test for organotin compounds in European landfill leachates (Mersiowsky et al., 2001) indicated maximum levels of approximately 4 pg/1 of monooctyltin. 

Some information exists regarding the potential for emissions of organotin compormds from landfills, including laboratory-scale experiments as well as measured concentrations of organotins in landfill leachate. 

Table 15 Concentrations of organotins in landfill leachates (Sweden, Germany, and Italy). ...

Concentrations found in leachate do not necessarily represent the concentrations that would be foimd in the wider environment. Landfill leachate may be treated using on-site water treatment facilities, it may be disposed of directly to the municipal sewer, or, in some cases — for older facilities — it may leach directly out of the landfill into the environment. Even in the latter case, there will be a significant dilution of the landfill leachate upon entering the environment. Resulting environmental concentrations are, therefore, likely to be significantly lower than those reported above. 

Mersiowsky I, Brandsch R, Ejlertsson J (2001) Screening for organotin compounds in European landfill leachates. Journal of Environmental Quality, 30 1604-1611. 

A possible source for much of the groundwater contamination is landfill leachate containing trichloroethylene. Trichloroethylene was the most commonly found chemical at NPL sites in New York State (Mumtaz et al. 1994). The compound was detected in leachate samples from Minnesota municipal solid waste landfills at levels ranging from 0.7 to 125 pg/L (0.7-125 ppb) and in groundwater near landfills at levels ranging from 0.2 to 144 pg/L (0.2-144 ppb) (Sabel and Clark 1984). Trichloroethylene was also detected in landfill leachate from a landfill in New Jersey at concentrations of up to 7,700 pg/L (7,700 ppb) (Kosson et al. 

Kosson DS, Dienemaim EA, Ahlert RC. 1985. Characterization and treatability studies of an industrial landfill leachate (Kin-Buc 1). Proceedings of the Industrial Waste Conference 39 329-341. 

Reinhard M, Goodman NL, Barker JF. 1984. Occiurence and distribution of organic chemicals in two landfill leachate plumes. Environmental Science and Technology 18 953-961. 

Gintautas PA, SR Daniel, DL Macalady (1992) Phenoxyalkanoic acid herbicides in municipal landfill leachates. Environ Sci Technol 26 517-521. 

Landfill leachate or gas condensate derived from listed waste. Landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate derived from previously disposed wastes that now meet the listing description of one or more of the petroleum refinery listed wastes would be regulated as a listed hazardous waste. However, U.S. EPA temporarily excluded such landfill leachate and gas condensate from the definition of hazardous waste provided their discharge is regulated under the CWA. The exclusion will remain effective while U.S. EPA studies how the landfill leachate and landfill gas condensate are currently managed, and the effect of future CWA effluent limitation guidelines for landfill wastewaters. 

Phytodegradation Soils, groundwater, landfill leachate, land application of wastewater Herbicides (atrazine, alachlor) Aromatics (BTEX) Chlorinated aliphatics (TCE) Nutrients (NO, NH4+, PO3) Ammunition wastes (TNT, RDX) Phreatophyte trees (poplar, willow, cottonwood, aspen) Grasses (rye, Bermuda, sorghum, fescue) Legumes (clover, alfalfa, cowpeas)... 

Case 1 Anaerobic/Aerobic Treatment of Municipal Landfill Leachate... 

Attached-Growth Biomass for Sanitary Landfill Leachate Treatment. 581... 

The harmful liquid that collects at the bottom of a landfill is known as leachate. The generation of leachate is a result of uncontrolled runoff, and percolation of precipitation and irrigation water into the landfill. Leachate can also include the moisture content initially contained in the waste, as well as infiltrating groundwater. Leachate contains a variety of chemical constituents derived from the solubilization of the materials deposited in the landfill and from the products of the chemical and biochemical reactions occurring within the landfill under the anaerobic conditions. 

Fortuitous or co-metabolic biodegradation may account for a significant portion of the removal of xenobiotics in the environment.24 Numerous examples of co-metabolic activity have been described for pure substrates,22 but co-metabolism has been very difficult to demonstrate in mixed-substrate, mixed-culture systems, because products of the co-metabolic reactions of one species may be degraded by another.24 To encourage co-metabolism, easily degradable co-substrates should be included in the leachate prior to biological treatment. Fatty acids, which often occur in landfill leachates, may fulfill this requirement. 

The key issues in developing an effective biological landfill leachate treatment process are the following ... 

Case 1 Anaerobic/Aerobic Treatment of Municipal Landfill Leachate in Sequential Two-Stage Up-Flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASB)/Aerobic Completely Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) Systems... 

The aerobic biofilter used in the study had a capacity of 10 L. The reactor was packed to 60% of the empty bed volume with Cosmo ball media. The biofilter was seeded with active innoculum taken from an active aerated lagoon of a nearby landfill leachate treatment. Fresh raw leachate was used as feed to the reactor at a rate of 5 L/d over 24h. The loading rates applied to the bioreactor were between 1.6 and 22.2 kg COD/m3d. Initial studies were conducted as a batch process lasting for a period of 24 d. Thereafter, the biofilter was fed continuously for a total period of 240 d. 

---