Authors: Tushar Kadam, Dhiraj Gadhave, Nirzara Sarole, Shital Shinde
Abstract: Landfills are a potential threat to human health and the environment, especially from the detrimental and toxic heavy metals. This study focuses on the assessment of heavy metals contamination in leachate and surface soils from different landfills in Pune. The impacted soils showed high heavy metal concentrations especially at non-sanitary unlined landfills, as compared to background values, and natural soil nearby the landfills. Leachate possesses potential risk to surface and groundwater aquifer within the area surrounding the landfill site. The aim of this chapter is to assess the physical parameters and heavy metal levels in leachate. Heavy metals are one of the important pollutants in landfill leachate. Plants and soil near the landfill may be contaminated by leachate. In this study, by evaluating the heavy metals in the leachate of three landfills, the amount of pollution caused by the leachate in the environment around the landfills in Pune was investigated.
