Tracer identification in water sources near landfill as ideal candidate for landfill monitoring

Abstract

The surface water and ground water sources can be contaminated due to nearest landfill activities. Consequently, the water sources contamination associated with the landfill site have not been fully study. Therefore, it is necessary to get a good tracer that being able to detect the pollution sources in water. Tracer in water sources near landfill can be used as evidence of the landfill impact towards surrounding environment. Tracer can be entirely natural, accident introduced or it introduced intentionally. Determination of tracer in water is possible since any contaminant that moves in water act as a tracer. This research has focused on the assessment of heavy metal possibility to be a tracer in water sources near landfill. The Padang Siding landfill located at Arau, Perlis is used as a study site. There were a few water sources within 500 meter from its leachate pond. Migration of heavy metal into water sources can be either surface run-off due to rainfall or infiltration of leachate into soil and ground water. Chemical element presented in water was determined using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) first. After identify similar element presented in water and leachate, concentration of selected element then being measured using Atomic Adsorption Spectrometry (AAS). This study demonstrates that Copper in water sources nearby landfill can be linked to landfill activities. Thus, the result had shown that copper with the concentration range 0.053 mg/l until 0.075 mg/l may represent as a tracer of water sources near landfill.