The Analysis of Heavy Metal Concentration per Distance and Depth around the Vicinity of Open Landfill

Abstract

Heavy metal is a source of environmental pollutant affecting the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The sources of heavy metal pollution are the industries, domestic sewage and landfills. Landfill operation is a sourceof heavy metal pollution which not only affected the biospehere, hydrospehere and athmosphere, but also the litosphere systems around it. This study aims to analyse the heavy metals concentration around the landifill vicinity for indication of heavy metal pollution. This study analysed the soil content of the heavy metal based on the distance and depth around the vicinity of the landfill. Field sampling of the soil and laboratory analysis were used. The field study involved 20 stations and 60 samples according to the wind directions: North, East, South and West.The analysis was conducted through the use of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Seven types of heavy metals were identified as indicators for pollution namely Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb. The results indicated that the concentration of Fe was the most dominant per specific distances and depths and exceeded the DOE minimum standard (301 mg/L) in North, East and West directions. While Cu was the second most dominant, with concentraion exceeding minimum DOE standard (19.8 mg/L) per specific distance and depth, mainly in the West direction.