The influence of natural attenuation on the risks and aftercare of former landfills
conference paper
At this moment the results of an extensive set of soil and groundwater analyses of about 80 former Dutch landfills are being processed. The study not only has to produce an image of soil and groundwater quality in and around landfills, but also has to lead to a more solid estimate of aftercare measures at the 3800 former landfills in the Netherlands. Investigation of 80 of these landfills is currently performed to obtain more understanding of natural attenuation processes in and around landfills. The preliminary results show that in general the concentrations of contaminants are very low, even in the landfill body itself. Only anaerobically difficult degradable compounds (benzene, naphtalene) are more than incidentally found. Outside the former landfills, concentrations of both micro- and macro-components are very low, e.g. concentrations of heavy metals in leachate and leachate plumes often are lower than background concentrations. In advance of the final results it may be concluded that until now the risks and the necessary aftercare and related cost have been overestimated, and that the main future measure will be monitoring (MNA).
TNO Identifier
256338
Publisher
Thomas Telford
Source title
Consoil 2000 : 7th international FZK/TNO conference on contaminated soil, organized by Research Centre Karlsruhe (KZK, D), TNO, in cooperation with UFZ Leipzig, 18-22 Sept 2000. Vol. 2
Editor(s)
Harder, W.
Arendt, F.
Arendt, F.
Place of publication
London
Pages
1078-1081