Table of Toxic Effects of Leachate: Alarmist or Realistic?

We occasionally encounter information about leachate which we find interesting and highlight the information to our readers, for information and your comment.

Here is one such instance which we would like to let you know about. The link to the article is at:
The Indian Resource Centre here.

You will see that they have published a Table of Health Effects of Toxic Chemicals in Landfill Leachates, and a part of it is provided below. (We have not included the whole table for reasons of copyright. )

Health Effects of Toxic Chemicals in Landfill Leachates:
Arsenic
Cancer causing; cardiovascular, peripheral nervous system, reproductive and lung/respiratory effects; liver and skin damage
Cadmium
Probable carcinogen and teratogen; toxic to embryos; effects on Central Nervous System (CNS), reproductive and lung/respiratory systems; kidney damage
Chromium
Carcinogenic, probable mutagen, lung/respiratory effects, allergic sensitization, eye irritation
Lead
Probable teratogen, kidney and brain damage, CNS and reproductive effects, blood cell disorders; negatively affects intelligence, growth and development of children.

Scary isn't it?

The article and this list refers to Indian landfills, but these contaminants may on occasions be found in most municipal and commercial/industrial landfill leachates worldwide.

We think that the table, while no doubt correct, is likely to raise alarm as it does not also go on to say that even at the least well regulated landfills, these substances will only be present at extremely low concentrations. In regulated sites the highest conentrations found will be in parts per million (mg/l), and parts per 1000 miilion (ng/l) trillion.

Now I don't want to suggest that anyone should ignore the potential for leachate to cause major problems if it enters surface water, or groundwaters. As long as landfills are properly designed, the leachate is contained and properly managed (usually best treated on-site) and disposed of, the undoubted hazard that landfill leachate represents does not need to present a high risk to the environment.

So while we all need to note the list of health effects, let's not also forget that for the leachate hazard within a landfill to have a health effect there would need to be a mechanism of transport to the receptor (human or environmental). Fortunately, throughout the developed nations these days, it would be extremely rare to find a landfill without proper containment of leachate.

Cutting out the method of transport, which unfortunately may exist (or have existed in the past) , at the Indian site described is however, essential and has hopefully been achieved at this site as well, (if the article is correct in the first place to suggest that leachate escape was occuring), since this article was written in 2002.

Gremista Landfill Leachate Treatment Plant Commissioning is Underway

The Enviros Leachate Team has successfully begun the biological commissioning of the new Gremista Landfill leachate treatment plant in the Shetland Islands, near Lerwick.

The plant is one of the first to be designed for the new breed of UK landfills which incorporate pre-treatment of waste before the residue only goes to landfill.

At this site there is also an incineration plant and the leachate treatment plant will treat the leachate generated by the landfilled incinerator ash as well as the residual waste leachate.

The commissioning is progressing well, at this the latest of Enviros leachate plants to enter the commissioning stage.

ATEX Directive & DSEAR: Essential Compliance Requiments throughout Europe for Leachate Management

This is an advertisement; - but if any reader's company (EU based) has yet to comply it could avoid them being proscuted later.

ATEX (DSEAR UK) Appplies to Landfills and Leachate Management: Since this June the ATEX and and UK's Dangerous Substance & Explosive Atmosphere Regulations have placed requirements on all landfill/leachate treatment plant operators. It is the Employers duty to ensure compliance.

Here is an important extract taken from the Statutory Instrument:-

Places where explosive atmospheres may occur

7. - (1) Every employer shall classify places at the workplace where an explosive atmosphere may occur into hazardous or non-hazardous places in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 and shall classify those places so classified as hazardous into zones in accordance with paragraph 2 of that Schedule; and that Schedule shall have effect subject to the notes at the end of that Schedule.

(2) The employer shall ensure that the requirements specified in Schedule 3 are applied to equipment and protective systems in the places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1).

(3) Where necessary, places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be marked by the employer with signs at their points of entry in accordance with Schedule 4.

(4) Before a workplace containing places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1) is used for the first time, the employer shall ensure that its overall explosion safety is verified by a person who is competent in the field of explosion protection as a result of his experience or any professional training or both.

(5) The employer shall ensure that appropriate work clothing which does not give rise to electrostatic discharges is provided for use in places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph (1).

(6) This regulation is subject to the transitional provisions in regulation 17(1) to (3).

Is you organisation compliant?

Enviros Consulting has all necessary explosion protection experience, and can assist with compliance training, DSEAR explosion risk reviews, produce Explosion Protection Docuements, and gernally assist with ATEX (DSEAR UK) compliance issues. In fact they have been busy doing this work for many, mostly Local Authority, but also commercial clients, since early this year, for existing landfill sites.

Visit Enviros employee web site www.atexanddsear.co.uk for more information and contact Enviros for any further information needed via the ATEX & DSEAR Contact Page.

Amusing Conversion Factors

OK. These conversion factors may not have anything to do with anything to do with leachate, but it rained all day yesterday...

1. Basic unit of laryngitis? = 1 hoarsepower
2. 1 million-million microphones? = 1 megaphone
3. 1 million bicycles? = 2 megacycles
4. 2000 mockingbirds? = 2 kilomockingbirds
5. 10 cards? = 1 decacards
6. 1 kilogram of falling figs? = 1 Fig Newton
7. 1000 milliliters of wet socks? = 1 literhosen
8. 1 millionth of a fish? = 1 microfiche
9. 1 trillion pins? = 1 terrapin

If you would like to add any more "conversion factors" email us, or add yours in a comment on the Blog.

Philadelphia Solid Waste Conference 2007: Call for Papers includes Leachate Treatment

The 22nd International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.

March 18 - 21, 2007

Has put out a call For papers:

Researchers, educators, government officials, students, consultants, managers, community leaders, and others with expertise in solid waste are invited to submit papers for oral presentation at the Conference.

Abstracts are encouraged from all areas of solid waste technology and management, including: Landfilling topics, Recycling, Energy recovery and thermal treatment, Waste reduction, Economics, Policy, Regulations, Facility siting, Public involvement, EU Directives, Solid waste, dust, Ash, Education, Household hazardous wastes, Municipal wastes, Waste composition studies, Industrial wastes, Composting and biological treatment, Contaminated sites, Medical wastes, Chemical and biochemical treatment,

Mining and mineral wastes, Agricultural wastes, Scrap tires, Research topics, Modeling, Utilization of waste materials, Case studies, Innovative technologies, Waste collection , Waste generation studies, Integrated waste management, Equipment, Sludge, Environmental impacts, Use of waste materials in construction, Geotechnical topics, Environmental equity, Construction and demolition wastes, Liners, caps, gas and leachate, Waste in Developing Regions. All other related topics.

More information is available here, and you have until 30 October to submit your abstract.

CIWM Welsh Centre Tour of German Waste Facilities

Waste Facility Study Tour including anaerobic digestion facilities:

The following tour is being offered to Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) Members. There may be some spaces available for non-members.

More information: There is a planned study tour in Germany (Siegen) from Thursday 12 to Sunday 15 October 2006. Return from Birmingham £250 pounds all included. The tour includes: aerobic and anaerobic digestion of green and kitchen waste, collection systems, weighing & identification of wheeled bins, underground storage, MRF, German legal system and cost. If interested, please contact Celine Anouilh on 02920210710 or email celine.anouilh@ciwm.co.uk

If you have been thinking of joining the CIWM and are a waste professional then perhaps now is the time to do this! If you need someone to provide a referral/act as your sponsor then contact your Blog Master (who is an existing CIWM Member) by email at steve.last@enviros.com for more information.

WWEM 2006 Conference Exhibition and Workshops on Water

As you all should be interested in water treatment, we thought you would be interested in the following:-

WWEM 2006 Conference, Exhibition and Workshops on Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring

1st & 2nd November 2006 Telford International Centre, England

www.wwem.uk.com

WWEM is a Conference, Workshops and Exhibition run with the Environment Agency for Water and Wastewater Monitoring.

As a visitor to WWEM, you can attend over 50 workshops, free of charge, on case studies, applications, Mcerts and new technology, as well as discuss business opportunities with over 100 equipment and service suppliers from the Water Industry.

As a Conference delegate, you can attend sessions on Modernising Regulations, Sensors for the Water Industry, Monitoring under the PPC regime, Mcerts updates and Analytical Techniques.

To download a full itinerary and programme, please log on to: www.wwem.uk.com/wwem.pdf

WWEM 2006

Oak Court Business Centre, Porters Wood
St Albans, Herts, AL3 6PH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1727 858840. Fax: +44 (0)1727 840310
Email: info@wwem.uk.com
Web: www.wwem.uk.com

Are any other subscribers going to South Africa for Wastecon 2006?

Leachate Treatment Technical: There are two WasteCon 2006 conferences, one in the US, and one in South Africa. Two of our Leachate Team will be attending the South African international waste management conference next week.

Enviros Leachate and biological waste processing experts, Howard Robinson and Jonty Olufsen will be attending and presenting. Leachate treatment will be the subject of a paper which they will present:

"Full Biological Treatment of Landfill Leachate: A detailed case study of Efford Landfill in the New Forest, Hampshire, UK"

We would be very pleased to meet you if you are attending. Here is more about the conference:-

Wastecon 2006, Biennial Conference & Exhibition, 5 - 8 September 2006, Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa. Organised by the Institution of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA)

More information is available on the Wastecon 2006 web site.

Although not yet spring in Cape Town the climate will normally be very pleasant and there are great places to visit in the locality - not least Cape Town itself.

Tag: Leachate Waste Management

Moderating the Leachate Forum: now 3 years old!

Envirosian Reports on the Leachate Forum:

The Leachate Forum has been running for three years now, and contains posts about a wide variety of leachate related subjects.

Some of the early topics were about "Iron in Leachate" and a "LIFE" (EU financed research) project.

A recent Topic has been on the subject of Incineration Leachate, which is a sign of the increasing activity in that area of waste management.

The most frequent users have been students, which is only to be expected, as the young have naturally adopted the idea of the Forum more rapidly than us oldies.

The posters have been well behaved and spamming has been non-existent.

I can remember only one post which it was necessary to delete, due to defamatory remarks about a member's competitor.

Unsurprisingly, the most viewed post has been on the subject of - wait for it! - leachate!

I look forward to the next 3 years wondering what posts we will see.

For any of you who have not yet looked at the Leachate Web Site Forum
Leachate Web Site Forum , why not take a few moments to visit. While you are there, register, (it only takes a few moments) and post your burning leachate related topic for discussion.

Tag: Leachate Forum

Welcome Existing Leachate Subscribers!

The Leachate Newsletter is back, and is now part of the Blogging Revolution...

Well personaly I am not so sure about blog posting exactly amounting to a revolution, but to use the Google Blogging system is free and very easy to use.

It is also accessible worldwide for us to add Post to the Blog and create Newsletter emails while abroad, and this matters incresingly as the world demand for our leachate plants continues to increase.

We are now designing our third plant in South Africa and our second in Malaysia. Additional overseas plants (and UK plants of course) are likely to be announced through this Newsletter this autumn.

In the UK we are anticipating moves this Autumn from the Environment Agency to issue final leachate BAT Guidelines, and for plants not yet covered under the site's PPC to be permitted under PPC.

We hope that you will enjoy this service and contact us via the www.leachate.co.uk web site, or via www.enviros.com in the event that we can work for you, as your leachate consultant.

Vissershok Leachate Treatment Success Continues into 4th Year

The operation of the Visserhok Leachate Treatment Plant (a first for South Africa) has now entered its fourth successful year.

Vissershok Landfill near Cape Town receives some 2000 tonnes of the City’s municipal solid wastes and low to medium hazardous wastes every day. The decomposing wastes produce up to 80 cubic metres of highly polluted leachate per day, which since July has been treated to high standards by a state-of-the-art, on-site leachate treatment plant.

Enviros was appointed to work with local consultants Arcus Gibb, to design, construct and commission the full-scale plant. Contractors for the civil, mechanical and electrical engineering works were appointed in August 2002, and biological commissioning to take place during July 2003.

The treatment scheme adopted includes pumping of leachate from the various tipping cells, into a large lined storage lagoon, which provides buffering of flows and quality for treatment by the plant. The main aerobic biological treatment process takes place in a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), which comprises a 6m deep, 16m diameter buried concrete tank, that is aerated and mixed, and automatically settled each day to provide a clarified effluent.

This effluent is then passed through a subsurface flow reed bed, containing Phragmites australis plants, which provide final polishing of water to a quality suitable for use in dust suppression on the roads – replacing potable water previously used for this purpose.

The whole treatment process is controlled automatically by a PLC system, including all operations of the plant, and maintenance of optimum pH-values for treatment. The part-time plant operator is able to programme the PLC, and interrogate all operations of the plant, using a Software Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, on a desktop computer.

Due to popular demand! As we have received a number of emails asking for the James Jackson paper, we have now uploaded the paper to our web space, for your downloading convenience.

Click here for the leachate paper link.

Pollution Incident Again Highlights High Level of Landfill Site Management Needed to Avoid Leachate Pollution

That leachate management requires the constant vigilance of landfill site staff so that breaches don't occur is no doubt exemplified by the following:-

From ENDS June we hear that Glasgow City Council was fined £2000 at Glasgow Sherriff Court on 5 June after contaminated liquid leaked from their Summerston landfill site in the north of Glasgow and entered the River Kelvin.

The local press reported that the liquid was the by-product of decomposing waste buried in the landfill", (ie leachate!).

This liquid is supposed to be collected, contained and treated on site, so that there is no damage to the environment," SEPA said.

The River Kelvin is a high enough quality river these days to be a well known fishing river.

The Leachate Web Site

Leachate Treatment Consultants Awarded CIWM Medal

We could not resist this one! Please excuse the blatant self publicity, and the fact that it has taken over a month to get hold of the picture file - which makes this rather old News...

During the CIWM Dinner in June, Steve Last, Howard Robinson, and Jonty Olufsen were awarded the James Jackson Medal for 2005.

Left to right: Steve Last, Howard Robinson, CIWM President Keith Simmonite, and Jonty Olufsen.

The James Jackson Medal for 2005 was awarded to the best paper presented to a meeting of the Institution, for our combined paper, Design and Operation of Cost Effective Leachate Treatment Systems at UK Landfills: Recent Case Studies, as included in CIWM's Scientific and Technical Review.

If anyone wants a copy of the paper emailed to them email us at info@landfill-site.com . Also visit our leachate web site http://www.leachate.co.uk/ .

Leachate Basics: What is it?

Let us start with a definition:-

leach'ate (noun) a liquid that has percolated through or out of some substance; a liquid that has been polluted or made toxic by percolating through rubbish; a solution obtained by leaching.

The United States EPA provides a more specific definition:

"Leachate is any liquid including any suspended components in the liquid, that has percolated through or drained from hazardous waste."

In this blog we will concentrate on leachate derived from rubbish, and in general from municipal (domestic and commercial) solid wastes (also often called sanitary wastes).

Back from the Ashes!

Here it is the Leachate Blog, originally created by Steve last for the Leachate Team of Enviros Consulting back in 2003, but since forgotten!

Well, it is now resurrected, and this time blogging has come of age, and this partiicular blog is unlikely to be forgotten again.

Until the next Blog, and if you have not seen it before, go take a look at our leachate web sites:

http://www.leachate.co.uk - The original leachate web site constantly enlarged and updated since circa 1997.

http://www.leachate-treatment.com - A promotional only web site for new clients.

www.leachate-irrigation.com - A collaborative web site for leachate irrigation research etc.

More posts soon!