Physico-Chemical Degradation of Some Land-Fill Wastes Contaminating on Surface and Ground Surrounding Waters

Abstract

Influences of landfills on the surrounding waters have been studied in the neighbourhood of an urban area. Analytical and spectroscopic methods were used to investigate the waters of a canal situated in the neighbourhood of the landfill. Dangerous chemical compounds have been identified in the water as pollutants resulting from the physico-chemical processes of degradation of landfill waste. The quick method with gas sensor detection and colorimetric ion identification using a commercial Quantofix kit, as well as precipitation with AgNO3, offered preliminary information completed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Pollutants that reached the canal waters either by air (evaporation) or by discharges or through rainwater were analysed from the point of view of the degree of danger, sources of waste materials, as well as their circuit in the environment. Hydrogen cyanide, nitrites, nitro compounds, sulfites and sulphates, sulfonic tension-active compounds, peroxydes and hyperoxydes, azo-compounds, organic and inorganic acids of high corrosive potential, and Fe ions were generally the detected pollutants, each of them with specific harmful potential contributing as well in a cumulative effect to endangering human health directly or indirectly as environmental circulating contaminants.