Groundwater and Human Health Risk Assessment in the Vicinity of a Municipal Waste Landfill in Tychy, Poland

Abstract

Groundwater quality and human health assessment in the vicinity of landfills can be performed with the use of numerous index methods. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) and Health Risk Assessment (HRA) in the vicinity of a municipal landfill complex for monitoring data from 1995, 2003, 2010, and 2021 and in the context of average statistical data about Poles. The calculations take into account an extended range of parameters, including sulphates, chlorides, and ammonium ions. The calculation results for the Horizontal ratio indicate that it should not be used for all parameters. This was mainly reflected in the low sulfate content of the water monitored by a piezometer directly below the old landfill. Other indicators, reaching as high as around 2000 (the Nemerow Pollution Index) or approx. 18,000 (the enrichment factor), confirm the negative impact of the landfill. The Hazard Index values reached almost 700, which would indicate a high risk to human health when consuming water with similar parameters. Overall, the results illustrate that using the selected indices to assess groundwater risk can be a valuable method for supporting long-term observations of groundwater quality, which can be used to make predictions using artificial intelligence methods.