The impact of a landfill fire on ambient air quality in the north: A case study in Iqaluit, Canada

Abstract

A large landfill fire occurred in Iqaluit, Canada in spring/summer 2014. Air quality data were collected to characterize emissions as well as potential threats to public health. Criteria pollutants were monitored (PM2.5, O3, NO2) along with dioxins/furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds. Median daily dioxin/furan concentrations were 66-times higher during active burning (0.2 pg/m(3) Toxic Equivalency Quotient (TEQ)) compared to after the fire was extinguished (0.003 pg/m(3) TEQ). Other pollutants changed less dramatically. Our findings suggest that airborne concentrations of potentially harmful substances may be elevated during landfill fires even when criteria air pollutants remain largely unchanged.

Electrodialytic treatment of Greenlandic municipal solid waste incineration fly ash

“…This shipment and disposal is a considerable expense for the Greenlandic municipalities. Safe handling of hazardous waste is of interest in the Arctic due to the vulnerable environment, which can suffer severe consequences due to contamination from waste (Gilbreath and Krass, 2006;Poland et al, 2003;Weichenthal et al, 2015;Weiser and Powell, 2011).…”

Assessment of ecological impairment of Arctic streams: Challenges and future directions

“…For example, the large influence of a local greenhouse that was shown to be discharging phosphorous enriched water to Airport Creek was decommissioned in 2014, which is likely a reason for lowered abundance of macroinvertebrates downstream of this site in the following years. Likewise, a perpetual garbage fire that burned for much of 2014 (referred to locally as dumpcano) had a significant effect on regional air for Iqaluit (Weichenthal et al., 2015), which would have affected both streams equally across all points. We should also note that our study focused on a coarse taxonomic resolution (family‐level) comparison of annual trends, which does not often have the ability to differentiate interannual variation.…”

Spatial and Temporal Distributions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

“…Waste burning in Iqaluit is also a common practice (Giroux, 2014), and episodic landfill fire events might contribute to a local PAH input: in 2010, a landfill fire lasted 6 weeks (Harvey, 2018), while another major fire occurred between May and September in 2014 (Weichenthal et al, 2015). Finally, the petrogenic signature recorded near Sydkap Glacier confirms a coal origin (Fla/[Fla+Pyr] = 0.16) rather than an anthropogenic source, as previously reported (Fig.…”