Environmental degradation caused by the migration of pollutants from landfills is one of the biggest problems for urban areas. Systematic monitoring of groundwater in the vicinity of waste dumps allows for an assessment of the degree of risk to the soil and water environment. In this paper, spatiotemporal variation of groundwater pollution near a municipal landfill in Sosnowiec (southern Poland) was investigated. For this purpose, the monitoring results of five physicochemical indicators from 2014–2019 were used. This study presents an example of the application of the Landfill Water Pollution Index (LWPI) and the Cd Contamination Index. The obtained results indicated that the tested waters were negatively influenced by municipal landfills, especially in the southern part (piezometers P8 and P10). The values of the Contamination Index even reached a value equal of about 1400, while the values of the LWPI index reached 305. Significantly lower values of both indicators were obtained using the results of monitoring studies for other piezometers located upstream from the landfill but belonging to the observation network of a neighboring facility. The indices used permit a determination of the level of groundwater contamination from the described landfill and can be used in similar research areas.

Ap pli ca tion of pol lu tion in di ces for the spatiotemporal as sess ment of neg a tive im pact of a mu nic i pal land fill on ground wa ter (Tychy, south ern Po land). Geo log i cal Quar terly, 62 (3): 496-508, doi: 10.7306/gq.1420 As so ci ate ed i tor: Stanis³aw Wo³kowicz Risk as sess ment plays an es sen tial role in the pro tec tion of ground wa ter re sources, es pe cially in the re gions of po ten tial con tam i na tion sources. The pres ent re search was aimed at as sess ing the risk of ground wa ter con tam i na tion in the vi cin ity of the Tychy-Urbanowice mu nic i pal land fill sys tems (south ern Po land), us ing the con tam i na tion in dex tool. Ground wa ter samples from the Qua ter nary Aqui fer were col lected from 22 piezometers lo cated near the for mer land fill site (cur rently closed) and the new sealed land fill site dur ing a mon i tor ing pe riod from 1995 to 2015. Ex tremely high val ues (1700) of the ground water con tam i na tion in dex were ob served in a piezometer that cap tures wa ter be neath the aban doned land fill. Very high in dex val ues (154 or 216) were also no ticed in piezometers lo cated in the ground wa ter out flow from the land fill site. Re sults of in terpo la tion for in di vid ual piezometers, which cap ture only the up per or lower part of an aqui fer, are un rep re sen ta tive. The in terpo la tion for the mean val ues of the con tam i na tion in dex in creased the ground wa ter risk as sess ment. Key words: hydrogeology, ground wa ter risk as sess ment, con tam i na tion in dex, mu nic i pal land fill site, Tychy-Urbanowice.

Es ti mat ing ground wa ter vul ner a bil ity to pol lu tion is based on the quan ti ta tive and qual i ta tive as sess ment of the de gree of expo sure to the pol lu tion. This ar ti cle at tempts to as sess ground wa ter vul ner a bil ity to pol lu tion in the area of a com plex of landfill sites lo cated in the sup ply area of one of the im por tant ground wa ter res er voirs in south ern Po land. Two dy namic leach ing tests and two static tests were car ried out on two dif fer ent sam ples of slag from one of the met al lur gi cal land fills dur ing var ious pe ri ods of stor age (15 year old waste and freshly de pos ited waste). Trans port equa tions were based on the data from a col umn ex per i ment. The advection-dis per sion equa tion for col umn leach ing was em ployed, which con firmed the sim u la tion pa ram e ters through ex per i men ta tion. The re sults of the leach ing tests on chlo rides showed that they are leached from the land fill over a pe riod of ~60-90 years from the mo ment of de pos it ing the waste. The seep age time for the Qua ter nary aqui fer is 1-7 years and, for the Tri as sic aqui fer, 5-40 years. The Backman's con tam i na tion in dex (1998) val ues ex ceeded 25, while a high threat to ground wa ter is ob served when the con tam i na tion in dex value equals 3. The use of all the afore men tioned meth ods de ter mined the most vul ner a ble area. Key words: vul ner a bil ity, leach ing tests, con tam i na tion in dex, land fills.

Landfill fires pose a real threat to the environment as they cause the migration of pollutants to the atmosphere and water sources. A greater risk is observed in the case of wild landfills, which do not have adequate isolation from the ground. The aim of this article is to present the results of studies on the toxicity of waste from a fire in a landfill in Trzebinia (southern Poland). Both soil and waste samples were investigated. The samples were analyzed using the GC-MS method and the leachates using ICP-OES. A total of 32 samples of incinerated waste and soil were collected. The organic compounds included naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo (c) phenanthrene, benzo (a) anthracene, chrysene, benzo (ghi) fluoranthene, benzo (b + k) fluoranthene, benzo (a) fluoranthene, benzo (c) fluoranthene, benzo (a) pyrene, benzo (e) pyrene, perylene, indeno[1,2,3-cd] pyrene, benzo (ghi) perylene, and dibenzo (a + h) anthracene. Among the inorganic parameters, sulfates, chlorides, arsenic, boron, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc were taken into account. Phenanthrene reached values exceeding 33 mg/L. Fluoranthene dominated in most of the samples. Sulfates and chlorides were present in the samples in concentrations exceeding 400 and 50 mg/L, respectively. Compounds contained in burnt waste may have a negative impact on soil and water health safety. Therefore, it is important to conduct research and counteract the negative effects of waste fires.

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