Faculty Publications
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Item Landfill leachate pollution index(IWA Publishing, 2023) Thalla, A.K.; Ambujan, A.; Kubsad, V.A major portion of wastes generated due to rapid industrializaron and urbanization ends up in landfills. The leachate generated as a consequence of physical and chemical changes in landfills can pose danger to the water and soil in the proximity. Poorly designed, faulty monitoring of leachate-handling systems could lead to unfortunate contamination affecting human and livestock health as well as adversely affecting agriculture and soil. An urgent need to quantify the contamination caused due to faulty handling of hazardous waste landfill (HWL) leachate has been felt. The leachate pollution index (LPI) has been an essential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential. The existing index was developed based on criteria, in particular, the toxicity and availability of the pollutants in the leachate from municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill sites, and thus many pollutants which are present in HWL leachate in significant concentrations were screened out. However, with rapid industrialization, the quantities of hazardous waste generated and its dumping in HWLs and the toxicity associated or rendered with it is not dealt currently but there is an urgent need for the same. Thus, pollutants such as halogenated organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals such as selenium need to be considered in the formulation of LPI for hazardous waste landfills. In this chapter, a review of sources of hazardous wastes, their conventional handling methods, developing LPI for MSW landfill sites, and further how the same can be modified to develop LPI for HWLs are discussed. The procedure stated for LPI development in this study can serve as an essential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential, can be used as a comparison tool for different HWL leachates, furthermore, and for ranking landfill sites based on the contamination potential. © 2023 The Authors. All rights reserved.Item An approach to quantify the contamination potential of hazardous waste landfill leachate using the leachate pollution index(Institute for Ionics, 2024) Ambujan, A.; Thalla, A.K.A significant portion of the hazardous wastes generated by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation end up in landfills. The wastes disposed of in hazardous waste landfills are less biodegradable; thus, the leachate generated due to the physical and chemical changes in the landfill renders high toxicity. If not monitored and handled appropriately, this leachate could lead to contamination affecting human and livestock health and adversely affect the soil and agriculture in the vicinity of the landfill site. A tool to quantify the contamination caused by improper handling of hazardous waste landfill leachate is essential to understand which landfill site would need immediate attention. In the present study, the leachate pollution index is developed based on the predominantly available pollutants in hazardous waste landfill leachate and their toxicity limits. Fuzzy Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process has been used to develop the index. These techniques have been used for screening and assigning weights to the pollutants. Further, sub-index curves have been developed considering the available concentration, the toxicity, and the standard concentration limits for each pollutant. The weighted linear sum function has been used to aggregate the weights and sub-index scores. The hazardous waste landfill leachate pollution index developed in this study can serve as a potential tool for quantifying the leachate contamination potential. Furthermore, it can be used as a comparison tool for ranking landfill sites based on the contamination potential. © 2023, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Iranian Society of Environmentalists (IRSEN) and Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University.