The Effects of Landfill Pollutants

Land pollution can get into our lakes and streams and kill many animals, including people.

After you throw away your garbage, do you ever think about where it goes? Unfortunately, many people do not. Even though our landfills are considered sanitary, when the garbage starts to break down and degrade, toxic chemicals are released both into the air and into the ground. If rainwater seeps through the ground where these chemicals are, it will transport them to the ground water table and into our sources of drinking water.

Air Pollution

Burning landfill gas for fuel instead of natural gas may seem like a better alternative to using a nonrenewable resource. However, doing this can emit the following chemicals into the air: vinyl chloride, benzene, dichlorethene, methylene chloride, tetracloroethene, trichloroethene and mercury. It also releases dioxin, which is highly carcinogenic. Most of these chemicals cause liver damage, lung damage and cancer, and are harmful to the nervous system and reproductive systems of human beings and animals.

Leachate and Eutrophication

Decomposing materials in landfills leach harmful chemicals such as chlorides and heavy metals into the soil. Rainwater picks them up and delivers them to the water table and drinking water of people and animals. According to the American Journal of Environmental Sciences, landfill leachate has been implicated in developmental anomalies, birth defects and surface and groundwater pollution worldwide. They define leachate as "the potentially polluting liquor that accumulates under a landfill site as a result of the infiltration and percolation of rainfall, groundwater, runoff, or flood water into and through existing or abandoned solid waste landfill sites." Leachate contains such a high level of ammonia that is toxic to organisms living in surface water. Ammonia also chemically reacts with the water and depletes the dissolved oxygen that is in it. If a body of water doesn't have enough oxygen, organisms that depend on it to breathe, like fish, will suffocate and die. Another consumer of dissolved oxygen are the bacteria that decompose organic waste. This organic waste can be an end product of waste water treatment plants, agricultural runoff and urban runoff. If too much of this organic waste and detritus enters the water system, the local wildlife has to compete with the bacteria that consumes it for dissolved oxygen in the water. If there is too much of this bacteria, it can deplete the oxygen supply all together and kill the animals. This process is called eutrophication.

Heavy Metal Poisoning

Cadmium, lead, copper, mercury, selenium and chromium are heavy metals that can cause health problems. Cadmium is toxic to humans and fish. Lead causes neurological disorders. Copper is toxic to juvenile fish. Mercury and silver also can kill fish by damaging gill tissue.

Carcinogens

Organic chemicals such as chlorinated hydrocarbons can cause cancer. A lot of organic chemicals are biologically active, meaning that bacteria can degrade them into byproducts that are more toxic than the original substance.

References

• Alliance for a Clean Environment: Harmful Health Effects - Pottstown Landfill's Air Pollution
• Science Publications: Toxicity Testing and the Effect of Landfill Leachate
• Georgia Environmental Protection Division: Description of Water Quality Constituents