Modeling of the transport of leachate contaminant in a landfill site: A case study in mangaluru

Abstract

Ground water flow and the solute transport model MODFLOW and MT3DMS were established to determine the spread of contamination from a landfill maintained by Mangaluru City Corporation at Vamanjoor, located nearly 8.5 km from the center of the city. As Vamanjoor is home for many educational institutes and also a residential area, the spread of the contamination has to be analyzed. For this study, the aquifer considered is a subbasin of the Gurupur basin. This study has focused on handling the data available in the most efficient way to develop a consistent simulation model. The model was calibrated successfully with RMSE value of observed versus simulated head as 0.32 m. The evaluation of model was also done by comparing with the measured water head and chloride level from the field on a seasonal basis. After validating successfully, the model was run to determine the extent of contamination and also to forecast a scenario for maximum rainfall. The results show that the contamination has spread to a distance of 1 km from the landfill and with maximum rainfall the spread will be around 1.8 km from the landfill. � 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London.