Assessment of the Soil Cover Quality in the Adjacent Areas to Landfills Based on the Study of Changes in Heavy Metals Concentration

Abstract

Heavy metals are an urgent environmental problem, since their high concentrations have a negative impact on soil chemistry. Solid domestic waste landfills are a direct source of heavy metals accumulation in soils. Landfills pollute and poison large areas around them. Heavy metals are concentrated in the surface layer of the soil 0–10 cm deep, and can later migrate into plants and further into living organisms. The article examines soil pollution by the total content of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn) in the areas adjacent to Tbilisi and Telavi (Georgia) landfills and on illegal landfill in the village of Anaga (Sighnaghi municipality). The results show that the soil cover of the territories adjacent to solid domestic waste landfills and illegal landfills is contaminated with heavy metals. The data obtained confirm the migration of heavy metals mainly in terms of the distance from the landfills. High concentrations of heavy metals in soils are characteristic of lead and cadmium. There is also a tendency towards a decrease in the content of lead, cadmium, copper, zinc with distance from the landfill of solid domestic waste.