Evaluating Groundwater Contamination Hazard Rating of Municipal Solid Waste Landfills in India and Europe Using a New System

Abstract

Uncontrolled municipal solid waste landfills potentially release harmful substances to the subsurface in the form of leachate, thus posing a significant hazard of groundwater contamination. The evaluation of groundwater contamination hazard posed by landfills is important for prioritizing them to undertake necessary pollution control and remedial measures in a phased manner. In this paper, a new groundwater contamination hazard rating system (HARAS), which has been presented in detail elsewhere, is applied to 11 municipal solid waste landfills—eight Indian and three European. The study shows that among the landfills studied, the Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa landfills in Delhi, the Kodungaiyur dumping ground in Chennai, the Pirana landfill in Ahmedabad, and the Dhapa landfill in Kolkata are categorized as “very high” hazard landfills, thereby indicating that these landfills are in urgent need of control and remedial measures. The study also shows that the Indian landfills pose a much greater hazard than the European landfills. This is primarily because the Indian landfills are uncontrolled, they are larger in size, and the groundwater underlying them is used for more varied purposes, including human consumption. A comparison of HARAS with existing hazard rating systems shows that the former is more sensitive to varied site conditions and makes a better tool for site ranking for adopting remedial measures.