Landfill site work performance based on residents perceptions of environmental impacts: case study in Malaysia

The disposal of solid waste using landfilling method has become a critical issue in Malaysia especially when concerning their impact towards environment. Eventhough the landfilling strategy applied in Malaysia is a very much improved version; gas and leachate produced from the landfill site still gave a major health issue to the existing residents. Thus, the work performance has been questioned. This paper presents a survey study of the environmental impacts to the nearby residents emerged from the landfilling activities at Jabi town, located in Kedah state, Malaysia based on their awareness and perceptions. Using the data collected, the work performance at site can be assessed. The landfill site has been categorised as a semi aerobic sanitary landfill. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a data collection tools. The level of severity has been determined using Severity Index method. From the discussions, the environmental impacts at specific site can be categorized as light problems and in a control condition. The work performance of selected landfill can be categorised as good due to the level of severity concluded

Study on water quality of unconfined and confined aquifer in Selangor: aeration method

The quality of groundwater depends on quality of water recharging the aquifer and the hydrologic and biogeochemical processes in it. In order to treat specific water properties and heavy metals present in groundwater, aeration and filtration process is applied. The objectives of this study are i) to investigate the groundwater properties collected from unconfined and confined aquifer, and ii) to analyze the groundwater properties varied by aeration period in a small tanks. The removal efficiency for turbidity, iron and manganese fall in the range of 25% to 30%, 9% to 66% and 50% to 90% for all samples, respectively. The dissolved oxygen content did influenced the average value of studied parameters, especially for pH value of confined samples, within 3 hours aeration, the value increase from 4.88 to 7.28, which is fulfil the requirement of Malaysian standard. It can be concluded that for all parameters observed, there were changes in values either increased or decreased throughout the aeration and filtration process for both studied aquifers

Material characterization of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) mixed with granite residual soil

The palm industry in Malaysia is a growing industry as from a mere 400 hectares planted in 1920, the hectarage increased to 5 million hectares in 2011 [1]. A by-product known as palm oil fuel ash (POFA) was a waste from the palm industry. Uncontrolled dumping of POFA give a serious impacts to environmental which creates pollution and health hazard. In this paper, the material characterization of POFA as an additive material to granite residual soil in terms of physical, mineralogical, chemical and mechanical properties has been investigated for the potential usage of the material. Results showed a general improvement of soil sample when mixed with POFA in all physical properties. The domain mineral present in natural soil is kaolinite. The mechanical behaviour also showed an improvement especially when compared to the landfill hydraulic barrier requirements

Anaerobic digestion of domestic wastewater in different salinity levels: the adaptation process

The effect of osmotic stress was carried out to determine the resistance to salt toxicity using 4 Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). A CSTR digestion study revealed that digesters seeded with an inoculum from a conventional mesophilic digester treating municipal wastewater and fed on domestic wastewater (DW) plus salts were able to acclimate successfully to a final salt concentration of 10 g l-1. The digesters showed some disturbances during the acclimatisation period as indicated by reductions in specific methane production (SMP), specific biogas production (SBP), pH and increases in Intermediate Alkalinity /Partial Alkalinity (1A/PA) ratio and Volatile Fatty Acid (VFA) concentration. This study revealed the order of disturbance was Sodium Chloride (NaCl) > Potassium Chloride (KCl) > KCl + NaCl. The average values for SMP after stabilisation were below those in the controlled digester, at 0.335 (controlled), 0.323 (NaCl), 0.316 (KCl + NaCl) and 0.308 l CH4 g-1 COD added (KCl)

Preliminary assessment of lakes water quality status at campus area in Selangor, Malaysia

A study was conducted to assess the water quality status of Engineering and Serumpun Lakes located in campus area. Selected water quality parameters (Biochemical Oxygen Demand - BOD, Chemical Oxygen Demand - COD, Dissolved Oxygen - DO, turbidity, Suspended Solids - SS, pH and Ammonia Nitrogen-NH3-N) were determined for about two months observation in the wet season and the average results were compared to Malaysian standards. The status of lakes were determined by using Water Quality Index (WQI) and classified according to the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS), Malaysia. The observed values for seven parameters of Engineering Lake were classified as IIA/B and V classes as well as Serumpun Lake. From the results, the lakes can be used for recreational purposes. However, based on WQI calculated value, the status of the lakes during the study period was indicated as polluted; 31.6 and 32.5 for Engineering and Serumpun lakes, respectively. Both lakes were classified as Class IV and the water suitable for irrigation uses only

Effect of wet and dry conditions of MUF polymers on strength properties of treated peat soil

Peat soil is one of the abundant soft soil material vastly found in east costal area of Peninsular Malaysia. Soft soil can be treated using wet and dry mixing method for the purpose of deep stabilization method. It is either mixed thoroughly with conventional or nonconventional binder. Among other properties of concern in soil, stabilization is a strength of treated peat medium which is much likely dependant on condition of wet and dry mixture between binder and treated soil. Essentially, nonconventional binder such as Melamine Urea Formaldehyde (MUF) polymer resin has recently found a fresh look in this study intendedly for future possible application, especially for rapid application stabilization technique. This chapter presents the performance of two types of MUF resin, namely MUF powdered (MUF-P) and MUF liquid (MUF-L) resin which were tested to treat peat soil for determination of unconfined compressive strength (UCS), and elasticity modulus. Both type of resins were mixed with peat specimens as wet and dry binder for stipulated periods of curing times (1–7 days). Results showed that MUF-P resin had performed significantly to improve UCS of initially high moisture content of treated peat soil specimens for up to 287 kPa in a week. Improvement of elasticity modulus, E50 in term of secant modulus also noticeable within 7–14 days of curing periods. However, MUF-L has significantly improved UCS of treated specimens particular for air curing application at lower range of moisture content with significant improvement of up to 500 kPa within 7 days curing period

Chicken slaughterhouse wastewater disposal: the challenges ahead

Slaughterhouses generate large volumes of highly polluted wastewater composed mainly of large amounts of organic and inorganic pollutants as well as solids which pose a threat to the environment. Fresh undiluted wastewater was collected twice a day for a period of six weeks from a chicken slaughterhouse located in a suburb area to investigate the properties of slaughterhouse wastewater. The average results indicated very high pollutant levels of selected water quality parameters such as pH, COD, BOD, TSS, TDS, colour, turbidity, total coliform and NH3-N which were 7.17, 4979 mg/L, 1360 mg/L, 515 mg/L, 545 mg/L, 14,163 PtCo, 697 NTU, 1.2 × 108 CFU/100mL and 110 mg/L, respectively. These results were compared with the values stated by Malaysia Environmental Quality Regulation (2000) for effluent discharge. It can be concluded that most of the parameters are not suitable for direct discharge to the water streams without prior treatment. It is however recommended for most abattoir wastewater to be discharged separately from the community sewerage systems or treated separately as hazardous wastewater as a way of reducing some of the dangers imminent in the reuse of such wastewater and also clogging of sewerage pipes

Geotechnical assessment of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) mixed with granite residual soil for hydraulic barrier purposes

This paper assesses the geotechnical properties of granite residual soil treated with palm oil fuel ash (POFA), a waste from the palm oil factory for the purposes of hydraulic barrier in landfills. Granite residual soil treated with up to 40% palm oil fuel ash (by dry weight of the soil) was compacted using standard proctor compactive effort at the optimum moisture content. Index properties, hydraulic conductivity (k), volumetric shrinkage strain (VSS) and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests were carried out. Results showed that the index properties of samples met the minimum requirement for it to be used ass a liner. The maximum dry density and optimum moisture content decreased and increased respectively. The influence of POFA treatment on the geotechnical properties generally showed an improvement with up to 15% POFA which gave the acceptable results with regards to its usability as a hydraulic barrier material in landfill

Effect of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) content on volumetric shrinkage strain of granite residual soil

Laboratory experiment was carried out to determine the effect of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) content on volumetric shrinkage strain (VSS) through drying process on the material to be used as hydraulic barrier in landfills. Granite residual soil treated with up to 15% POFA was compacted using standard and modified proctor compactive effort; with moulding water content between -2% to +4% of the optimum moisture content obtained from the compaction curves. Soil samples were compacted, extruded and allowed to dry in the laboratory at room temperature for a period of thirty days. The results showed that VSS increased with higher moulding water content and also at higher initial degree of saturation for all compactive efforts. The influence of POFA treatment generally showed a decrease in the VSS with increase in POFA content due to the pozzolanic property of POFA. It was concluded that VSS depends most on the moulding water content, percentage of POFA, initial degree of saturation and compactive effort

Lake water quality monitoring and prediction: natural attenuation

The Engineering Campus Lake in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) receives urban run-off (non-point source) and treated wastewater (point source). The role of the lake as a natural attenuation plant will be assessed in this study by monitoring and predicting selected water quality parameters. Samples were collected at the inlet and outlet points of the lake and analyzed for physical, chemical and biological parameters from years 2009 to 2013. The results were compared with the standard values indicated in Environmental Quality Act (EQA) and Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) in Malaysia. The average value for each water quality parameter tested in this study was used to classify the lake water. It was observed that several parameters show a high average value when compared to the limit fixed by regulations such as 36.28, 158.74 and 11.28mg/l for BOD, COD and DO, respectively. The removal efficiency of each parameter throughout the study period showed good results with the range value of, above 50%, when considering the lake natural attenuation. At the end, the prediction of each parameter for 3 years period by using trendline and its regression values were determined for future reference