Environmental monitoring of the North Porto Alegre landfill, Brazil: Fid-Bau Portal

Environmental monitoring of the North Porto Alegre landfill, Brazil

Kuajara, O. / Sanchez, J.C.D. / Ballestrin, R.A. / Teixeira, E.C.

In 1990, the administration of Porto Alegre, Brazil, declared a state of public emergency because its large landfills were not fit for operation. Almost 1 000 tid of domestic, industrial, and hospital wastes were being sent to the Porto Alegre landfill. Potential hazards to the local water resources have resulted because the landfill, besides receiving these wastes indiscriminately, was not equipped with a drainage or leachate treatment system. In addition, the waste disposal was not conducted orderly, thus rendering monitoring of the area practically unfeasible. Because of the difficulties in finding new suitable sites for waste disposal, the city administration opted to recover its northern landfill using an accelerated solid waste stabilization technique. This work assesses the results from the monitoring during the first 3 years of implementation of this technique. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, nitrogenous series, phosphate, conductivity, alkalinity, total residue, and heavy metals (Al, Ag, Ba, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were determined in the surface water, groundwater, and leachate. Biogas samples taken directly from the flares installed in the various cells were analyzed for CH₄, CO₂, CO, H₂, O₂, and N₂.