Prediction of Groundwater Contamination at Uncontrolled Landfill Site by Using

Advanced Geophysical Technique

Debaprakash Parida, Arindam Saha, Ashim Kanti Dey

National Institute of Technology Silchar, Cachar, Assam, India-788010

debaprakash.dp@gmail.com

Abstract. Contamination of groundwater is a prominent contemporary environmental issue. Prediction of

contaminated groundwater by destructive bore well method is very difficult and time consuming. Moreover,
these method fail to accurately predict the contamination zone for whole site as only a few observations
wells were made at the field. To overcome the deficiency of conventional method advanced geophysical
techniques are developed. In this pilot study, the extent of contaminated groundwater was predicted by
electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), a non-invasive geophysical technique. Contaminated groundwater
was then removed by electroosmotic dewatering (EOD) technique. In this study it is intended to establish a
correlation with which the quality of groundwater near a non-engineered landfill can be known without
making any borehole and laboratory analysis. For this study a model non-engineered landfill of dimension 4
m x 2.4 m x 0.6 m depth was prepared to replicate the original site condition. ERT was performed on and
around the landfill to visualize the groundwater contamination. Groundwater was collected at regular interval
for a period of five months and analysed for contaminant concentrations. Water quality index (WQI) was
calculated to determine the quality of water for each sample and correlated with the resistivity data. Design
chats were prepared by correlating water quality with resistivity value. The study has evidenced the
efficiency of resistivity survey in predicting the contaminated zone of groundwater.:
Keywords: Groundwater contamination, non-engineered landfill, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT),
water quality index (WQI),

1 Introduction

Landfills are the systems which facilitate the containment of wastes keeping the surrounding environment safe.
But if these landfills are not properly designed or well-maintained, they impose serious environmental threats to
its immediate environment. Nowadays, major drinking water sources are mostly affected by the detrimental
effects of non-engineered landfills. Leachate is a toxic chemical solution which gets emanated from the landfill
when water flows through the landfill wastes [1]. Leachate percolates through the soil and ultimately
contaminates the groundwater source below the landfill. Prediction of this contamination using conventional
method is difficult and time consuming. Moreover, it fails to provide full information on contamination of the
whole site. Geophysical methods are found to be more effective and efficient in predicting the spreading of
groundwater contamination. Among all the geophysical methods, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)
technique is found to be very much adaptable in this concern.
Electrical resistivity tomography technique is a non-invasive geophysical technique which depends
upon the property of material in carrying the electrical current. This technique is performed on the surface with
the help of a resistivity measuring instrument and some electrodes to obtain the information of the subsurface
[2]. Development of this method is the result of some experiments conducted by Conrad Schlumberger in the
year 1912. Though, this technique is very old but its effective applications in the study of emerging
environmental issues are yet to be explored extensively.
The quality of water at any stage is defined through Water Quality Index (WQI) which is determined
from the physicochemical analyses of the given water sample. WQI is an effective tool which facilitates to
inform about the quality of water to the concerned agency or citizen. WQI reflects the combined effects of
various parameters on quality of water. The quality of water is categorised as excellent, good, poor, very poor
and extremely harmful depending upon the WQI values.
The objective of this pilot study is to correlate the groundwater quality, calculated by using WQI, with
the resistivity values obtained from the ERT survey over a period of time at a non-engineered landfill site.
2 Materials and methods
A non-engineered landfill was modelled at a site within the campus area of NIT Silchar, having latitude 24º 45’
and longitude 92º 47’. The site is so chosen that the water table is not much below ground surface, so that
leachate from the landfill could easily contaminate the ground water within a shorter time span. The landfill was
prepared in the month of November. The study area receives an average annual perception of around 300cm.
The water table is around 0.7m below the ground surface. The site had mainly silty clayey soil with permeability
of 3.174 x10-6 cm/sec.
A trench of dimension 4m x 2.4m x 0.6m was prepared. The trench was prepared on the lowest side of
the slope and near a pond. Waste comprising of food waste from hostel, paper waste, plastics and cow dung
were dumped in the trench and made levelled with the ground surface. It was intended to replicate the original
landfill site present at Silchar in Assam, India through this pilot study. The model landfill was prepared in the
month of November.
Two ERT tests were conducted on downstream side of the landfill and at a perpendicular distance of
0.5m and 1.5m from the landfill. 48 numbers of electrodes were used at a spacing of 0.5m and performed at
every month. Two observatory wells, each located on the middle of the ERT profile, were prepared to monitor
contamination of groundwater and for collection of samples. The depth of the observatory well was kept to
1.2m. ERT were conducted every month along these two profiles and subsequently water from these two
boreholes were drawn and tested in laboratory.
The laboratory test of water sample includes pH, turbidity, alkalinity, chloride, iron, sulphate, nitrate,
dissolved oxygen, hardness. To represent the quality of groundwater in a simple way, a water quality index
(WQI) is used [3]. For calculating the water quality index, firstly each parameter of the eight considered, was
assigned with some weight, ranging from 1 to 5, depending upon the impact of each parameter on human health.
Secondly, the relative weight of each parameter is deduced by dividing its own weights prescribed by sum of
total weights of the all the parameters. Thirdly a quality rating scale for each parameter is prepared by dividing
the concentration of each parameter by the standard value of drinking water prescribed in BIS guideline, and
multiply the value with 100 [4]. Finally, the water quality index is obtained by summation of the product of each
relative weights and their quality rating scale.

3 Results
3.1 Resistivity Survey
Resistivity survey has shown the variation in the resistivity values below the landfill before and after the filling
of waste. The resistivity profiles before and after four months of dumping are shown in figure 1 and 2,
respectively.

FIGURE 1. ERT profile before making landfill on November

 FIGURE 2. ERT profile after four months of dumping of waste on March
According to the observed depth of contaminant flow, resistivity values are interpreted from the true
resistivity profiles for a depth rage between 0.7 m to 1.2 m. The representative resistivity values are taken from
the groundwater table to the contaminated depth. The range of resistivity values observed for two boreholes
within 0.7 m to 1.2 m depth over the observed periods at the site is presented in the table 1.

TABLE 1. Resistivity values corresponding to the time of observation for borehole 1 and 2

Resistivity (Ohm-m)
Sl. No. Month
Borehole 1 Borehole 2
1 November
70-75 75-80
2 December
55-60 40-50
3 January
50-55 30-40
4 February
40-45 20-30
5 March 45-50 30-35

3.2 Water quality data

For each successive month, the quality of contaminated water is determined according to the physicochemical
analyses of the water samples. Water quality index (WQI) is calculated for the samples from each borehole as
per the obtained physicochemical concentrations for each of the observed months. Quality of water is
categorised as per the WQI values and are presented for corresponding boreholes in the following tables.

Table 2. WQI and corresponding water quality for borehole 1 and 2

Borehole 1 Borehole 2
Month
WQI Water quality WQI Water quality
November 89.19 good 89.19 Good
December 111.36 poor Poor
121.72
January 119.76 poor very poor
240.35
February 114.63 poor very poor
264.09
March 109.55 poor very poor
238.72

3.3 Correlations between resistivity and water quality

The variation of the resistivity values with the equality of water for corresponding distances from the landfill are
also presented in table 3. A good regression coefficient for the correlation is obtained from the analysis. The
obtained resistivity data and the water quality index over the observed periods are correlated and the resulting
graph is presented in Fg. 3.
 Table 3. Variation of resistivity with quality of water
Borehole 1 Borehole 2
Resistivity Range Water quality Resistivity Range Water quality
70-75 good 75-80 good
55-60 poor 40-50 poor
50-55 poor 30-40 very poor
40-45 poor 20-30 very poor
45-50 poor 30-35 very poor

300
water quality index (WQI)

250
y = 0.1117x2 - 15.034x + 588.93
200 R² = 0.885
150

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Resistivity values

FIGURE 3. Correlation between resistivity value and water quality index over a period of five months

4 Discussion
From this pilot study it was observed that the resistivity values decreased over the period of time indicating the
contamination of groundwater at corresponding depths. But in the month of March, the resistivity value
somehow increased as compared to February for which it was suspected as the decreased value of contaminant
concentration in the groundwater. The laboratory analysis confirmed the decreased value of contaminant
concentration after the rainfall.

5 Conclusion
The experiment showed that the variation in the degree of contamination of groundwater over a period of time
can effectively be predicted from the resistivity survey. Following conclusions are drawn
1. Resistivity value of 20 to 40 Ω-m, 40-60 Ω-m, and 70-80 Ω-m respectively indicates the ‘very poor’,
‘poor’ and ‘good’ quality of groundwater at the investigated nonengineered landfill site
2. About 62.5% of the total water sampled were found to be ‘poor quality’ whereas 37.5% found ‘very
poor’ quality which apprises about the potential of leachate flow to further contaminate the
groundwater
3. The changes in contaminant concentration in groundwater can easily be captured through ERT.

Reference

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Current Geoelectrical Imaging Method. Journal of Applied Geophysics, 95, 135-156 (2013)
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Groundwater in Tumkur Taluk, Karnataka State, India. E-Journal of Chemistry, 6(2), 523-530(2009)
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