Water and Wastewater Consulting Engineers Research Development
Doi
Abstract
Leachate production and management is a challenging environmental issue in municipal landfills and depots in Iran. Leachate contains toxic materials, heavy metals, and organic and microbial pollutants on a significant scale. Its uncontrolled entrance into the surface, groundwater, and soils can also substantially inverse impacts on human health and natural habitats. In Mazandaran province, during the last decades, depots and landfilling of municipal and industrial waste have led to environmental degradation in its eco-sensitive natural zones and brought a series of health, social, and security challenges to the region. Due to the region's high precipitation rate and landfills with no cover, these places practically convert into an extensive resource for leachate production. To diminish the environmental impacts, a lot of work has been done in recent years to develop a sort of leakage gathering system and treatment plants in these landfills, based primarily on an overall estimation. In this study, a calculating computer model has been developed for leakage production based on regional climate conditions and the characteristics of municipal waste. This model is different from the HELP model, which is commonly used for sanitary landfills and is specifically developed for the waste depots of the Mazandaran province. In this model, hydrological methods, which are based on the water balance in the landfill sites, were used for the calculation. The developed model was uploaded as an online service for public use. By referring to the internet address provided, the developed model in the landfill part and the leachate section, the amount of produced leachate for the landfill site of Mazandaran province can be calculated. Also, the leachate volume of the Babol Anjilsi landfill has been calculated as a case study. As a result of this study, the lowest and highest amount of the production leachate for hot and dry months of the year (June and July) and for wet and rainy months (October) was about 63.39 and 260.07 cubic meters per day, respectively