The Threat of Landfill Leachate Contamination for Groundwater and Well Water Sources.

Abstract

As Earth’s population hits eight billion, waste management or the proper disposal of solid material is crucial for the sanitation and environmental health of the planet. Landfills have been used as a tool for waste management for centuries. Modern landfills are engineered to bury solid waste and protect the soil and subsurface groundwater from contamination through the mechanics of plastic and clay liners. The contamination associated with landfills includes high levels of methane release, which is a hazardous greenhouse gas, and leachates, commonly known as “trash juice”. Leachates are the liquid by-product of buried waste from developed moisture, which, if secreted into the soil and groundwater, can cause significant pollution to aquifers, leading to contaminated drinking water for those using private wells as a source of freshwater. Leachates often contain multiple contaminants, including lead, iron, Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and other heavy metals (Han et al., 2016). Michigan has approximately 126 active and closed landfills. Closed landfills can continue threatening groundwater due to leachate pollution 25 years post-closure (Kjeldsen et al., 2002; Renou et al., 2008). It is known that approximately 45% of Michigan residents use private wells as their primary source of drinking water (Steinman et al., 2022). Private wells near a landfill can cause adverse health effects to many residents who rely on those wells for freshwater, due to leachate pollution. The research associated with this study aims to evaluate the groundwater quality of well sites near landfills across Michigan and determine the extent of leachate pollution affecting these freshwater sources. From this, analyze the available water quality data to understand whether leachate pollution is more likely to occur in wells near landfills. The geographic information system software ArcGIS assisted in visualizing the location of landfills in relation to private wells and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) well sites in Michigan. USGS well sites were included in this research due to the lack of private well water quality data. This analysis discusses the increased risk specific Michigan communities face by living near a landfill and the public health risks associated with leachates. We also discussed ways to decrease the use of landfills and sustainably dispose of waste material to protect and mitigate harm to our freshwater drinking sources.