Modelling Leachate Pollution Index and Potential for Selected Municipal Solid Waste Dump Sites: A Case Study

Abstract

Unengineered and uncontrolled dump sites is a threat to human and the environment. Leachate infiltration from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) posed great threats to surface and groundwater systems. Leachate samples were collected from Niger-Cat (NC), Don-Parkar (DP) and Orhuwhorun (ORH) dump sites for September, November and January by Random Sampling (RS) technique and concentration of selected leachate parameters were determined. Principal Component Regression (PCR) analysis was employed to model Leachate Pollution Index (LPI) and pollution potentials of leachate of NC, DP and ORH dump sites to ascertain the threats posed to surface and groundwater systems of the immediate environment of the dump sites. The modelled LPI values at NC were 16.492, 16.162 and 14.599, at DP modelled LPI values were 15.714, 15.119 and 18.883 while at ORH modelled LPI values were 12.379, 11.940 and 12.072 for September, November and January respectively. The LPI values were compared with the Indian LPI standard value (7.378) for the disposal of leachate. It was revealed that the LPI values were above the maximum permissible limit, which indicated that the leachate generated from these dump sites are of high pollution potentials. It therefore implied that NC, DP and ORH are threats to the immediate environments; local surface and groundwater systems may be at risk of contamination, if no measure is put in place to check these threats.