Leachate transport phenomenon on groundwater quality: modeling using MODFLOW and MT3DMS tools

The dumping of solid waste in uncontrolled landfills can cause significant impacts on the environment and human health. The open dumps cause the formation of leachate which contaminated the groundwater; use of these groundwater reported danger to the human health. The goal of groundwater protection is necessary to control the release and migration of pollutants from the leachate in the subsurface. In this paper, the above-mentioned problems were dealt with the case study of Ariyamangalam open dumping site, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu. The dump site receives 71% of organic waste. The groundwater flow and leachate transport model was developed using Visual MODFLOW and MT3DMS (Version 4.3), to study the leachate transport in the subsurface and to predict the plume behavior under different scenarios. The conceptual model of the system was derived from the information on geology, geo physical and geo hydrology of the study area. The total dissolved solids (TDS) were taken as a parameter, to study the extent of contaminant plume for the next nine years (2014-2022). From the groundwater flow model, it was found that the increase in water level by 2.5 m above MSL from December 2010 (70.9 m above MSL) to December 2022 (73.4 m above MSL) around the study area. From the leachate transport model, the predicted TDS plume movement was identified towards the west and south east directions of the open dumping area. As a conclusion, the developed groundwater flow and leachate transport model can be effectively used for studying the leachate migration from the open dumping site into subsurface system.