Effect of industrial waste dumps on the quality of river water

Abstract

Landfills are an important source of industrial pollution of surface and groundwater area in the vicinity of waste heaps. Hydrosphere pollution is mainly a consequence of the formation of leachate with high concentrations of toxic substances. In addition to substances considered as a typical toxic materials such as cadmium and lead, leaching water may contain high concentrations of other ions. These include the sulfates, chlorides and sodium. The paper presents the results of landfill leachate of colliery waste tip "Panewniki" located in the catchment of river Jamna (Mikolow). Post coal mine waters are characterized by very high electrical conductivity, which ranges from 7.5 to 8.3 mS . cm–1 in the case of the first effluent and from 7.9 to 10.6 mS . cm–1 in the case of the second effluent, respectively. Such high values of conductivity are caused by leaching of waste deposited in a heap. As a result of leaching process the increase of the concentration of individual ions also occurs. These can include sodium and chloride. The maximum sodium concentration may exceed the 2500 mg . dm–3 and 560 mg . dm–3 chlorides. Inflow of effluents into the river Jamna affects significant changes in water quality. The statistically significant differences in the concentrations of sodium and chloride in the waters above and below Jamny flow of leachate were demonstrated.