28    EVALUATION OF LEACHATE AND GAS FROM SANITARY
LANDFILLS WITH AND WITHOUT HHW
COMPONENTS
Riley N. Kinman, Professor
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
David L. Nutini, Biologist
RNK Environmental, Inc.
Erlanger, Kentucky 41017
David Carson
USEPA, RREL
Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
INTRODUCTION
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) disposal in sanitary landfill has been a concern since the issue
came to light in the 1980s. This concern has led communities to push for separation of these materials
from the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream. Collection programs have been established in many
areas of the country to address this concern. The benefits of these programs versus their costs are
questionable. Definitive answers to address the effects of these materials to the landfill's leachate and
gas quality have not been determined. This has been recognized by continuous technical review of the
literature since 1985.1,2,3
The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of HHW on landfill leachate and gas.
This paper will address one aspect of this study specifically evaluating priority pollutant concentrations between ten year old experimental landfills. Some of these landfills had been spiked with known
concentrations of these materials and others were straight MSW only with no spike. Statistical
comparisons were made on the leachate and gas between various types of landfills. The fate of some
of these compounds was also evaluated.
BACKGROUND AND METHODS OF EVALUATION
Data from this project were generated from a USEPA project conducted at the EPA Test and
Evaluation in Cincinnati, Ohio. The original project was set up in 1982 to evaluate the codisposal of
municipal solid waste and wastewater treatment plant sludges and their effect on leachate and gas.
Several of these landfills were spiked with a "cocktail" of priority pollutants as shown in Table I.
The landfills from the original project used for the evaluation of HHW impacts are shown in Table
II. Landfill leachate and gas quality were monitored on a monthly basis for the first four years. These
were the data used in this paper. The landfills were actually operated for 10 years until 1992. This
included draining leachate off the landfill and adding water (simulated rainfall) through the top of
landfill port once per month. Gas was also bubbled off as needed to relieve gas pressures. At the end
of the 10 year landfilling period, the refuse was sampled in each landfill at three locations: 1) top one
Table I.    Priority Pollutants in the Spike "Cocktail"
Acenapthene Ethylbenzene
Benzene Naphthalene
Bis(2-Ethyl Hexyl)Phthalate Pyrene
1,4-Dichlorobenzene Phenol
Dimethyl Phthalate Toluene
Di-n-butyl Phthalate PCB
Dioctyl Phthalate
49th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, 1994 Lewis Publishers, Chelsea, Michigan 48118. Printed in
U.S.A.
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