The Use of the Contamination Index and the LWPI Index to Assess the Quality of Groundwater in the Area of a Municipal Waste Landfill

Abstract

Environmental degradation caused by the migration of pollutants from landfills is one of the biggest problems for urban areas. Systematic monitoring of groundwater in the vicinity of waste dumps allows for an assessment of the degree of risk to the soil and water environment. In this paper, spatiotemporal variation of groundwater pollution near a municipal landfill in Sosnowiec (southern Poland) was investigated. For this purpose, the monitoring results of five physicochemical indicators from 2014–2019 were used. This study presents an example of the application of the Landfill Water Pollution Index (LWPI) and the Cd Contamination Index. The obtained results indicated that the tested waters were negatively influenced by municipal landfills, especially in the southern part (piezometers P8 and P10). The values of the Contamination Index even reached a value equal of about 1400, while the values of the LWPI index reached 305. Significantly lower values of both indicators were obtained using the results of monitoring studies for other piezometers located upstream from the landfill but belonging to the observation network of a neighboring facility. The indices used permit a determination of the level of groundwater contamination from the described landfill and can be used in similar research areas.