Monitoring of groundwater quality in the waste dump site of São Carlos, SP

Abstract

Brazil, like most developing countries, is still dealing with the consequences of inadequate management of waste. In this context, dumps and controlled landfills have become targets of surveillance and research, because they represent areas of potential contamination to water resources. In some municipalities, these landfills are located in soils vulnerable to infiltration of the leachate and thus alter the physico-chemical and biological characteristics of surface waters and groundwater. The former landfill of San Carlos has a similar configuration, since it was installed on a recharge area of Guarani Aquifer System (SAG), an important water reserve for Latin America. Therefore, this project aims to monitor the quality of groundwater in the area of the dump off, through the analysis of physico-chemical characteristics of water collected in pre-existing piezometers at the site. Moreover, it is expected that this work provides support for other projects that seek to protect the SAG, especially for a doctoral project developed simultaneously in the same area of study, which aims to assess the transport and mobilization of pollutants in their unsaturated zone. (AU)