Assessment of hydrochemical and isotopic characteristics at matang landfill site using multivariate analysis

Abstract

Landfilling has caused a number of hydrogeological environmental problems due to the migration of the leachate will contaminate the groundwater. The aim of this study is to investigate the migration of leachate in the landfill site to groundwater and surface water using hydrochemical and isotopic (δ13C) signature. Therefore, the hydrochemistry and isotopic (δ13C ) of each sampling station can be attributing to leachate migration. Multivariate analysis is then used to identify the interaction between leachate, groundwater and surface water. Sample of leachate, groundwater and surface water were analyzed to evaluate the impact of leachates on groundwater through the comparison of their hydrochemical nature. The results show that isotopic (δ13C) observations are supported by Potential Chemical Analysis (PCA) and Hirarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Additionally, this joint analysis makes it possible to observe the significance of the migration of leachate towards groundwater and surface water in the landfill vicinity. HCA analysis result reveals 3 clusters divided from 14 sampling points. The first and last cluster indicate there are no significant and mediocre relationship towards leachate due to high linkage distance from Matang Landfill Leachate Meanwhile, the second cluster shows the position of the contaminant that is Matang Landfill Leachate with short linkage distance to the sampling point and this cluster signifies the leachate migration to the sampling point and it shows the similarity of hydrochemical characteristics between sample from the shallow groundwater and leachate. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.