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Assessment of Arsenic and Physicochemical Properties of Soil Around Municipal Waste Dumpsite at Rohtak, Haryana, India
Alka Rao
, Shikha Kumari, Jitender Singh Laura and Geeta Dhania*
Department of Environmental Science, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India.
Corresponding Author E-mail: alkarao8848@gmail.com
Article Publishing History
Article Received on : 24 Jun 2024
Article Accepted on : 03 Aug 2024
Article Published : 14 Aug 2024
In most of developing countries, open dumpsites are frequently opted as the best choice to get rid of waste, but this type of practice has severe threats to the environment. This may be considered as one of the factors in contamination of soil and groundwater. The study examined the arsenic and physicochemical properties of soil around a municipal waste dumpsite in Rohtak city, Haryana. For Rohtak city, leachate secretion and generation of various gases at landfill site may be a factor in contamination of soil around the dumpsite. 13 samples of soil were collected from the surrounding area of dumpsite within 2 km area. Soil samples were tested for various parameters like pH, EC, moisture content, bulk density, water holding capacity, organic matter, chloride and arsenic. The pH values of the various samples of different locations ranged from 7.14 to 8.34, EC ranged from 1034-9536 with a mean value of μS/cm, organic matter of the soil samples of present study ranged from 1.26 to 3.16 %. Water holding capacity of soil samples ranged from 51.02 % to 59.14 %, moisture content was found from 3.12 to 13.86 % bulk density was found from 1.28- 1.89 g/cm3. Range of chloride content was 358-4165 mg/kg with mean value 1679 mg/kg. Higher level of arsenic contamination is found in the surrounding soil samples, ranged from 410 ppb to 840 ppb with mean value of 618 ppb which may be due to leachate secretion at dumpsite area that make soil unsuitable for agricultural purposes.
KEYWORDS:Arsenic; Fluorescence Spectoscopy; Municipal Solid Waste; Municipal Landfill; Organic Matter
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Copy the following to cite this article:Rao A, Kumari S, Laura J. S, Dhania G. Assessment of Arsenic and Physicochemical Properties of Soil Around Municipal Waste Dumpsite at Rohtak, Haryana, India. Orient J Chem 2024;40(4).
Rao A, Kumari S, Laura J. S, Dhania G. Assessment of Arsenic and Physicochemical Properties of Soil Around Municipal Waste Dumpsite at Rohtak, Haryana, India. Orient J Chem 2024;40(4). Available from: https://bit.ly/46NBxot
Introduction
Disposal of waste is one of the most significant issues the world is currently facing. Abandoned materials from commercial, industrial, agricultural, manufacturing, and community operations are referred to as solid waste1. Open dumpsites are still the most popular way to dispose of municipal solid waste, even in developing or low-income nations, despite the availability of other disposal options2. This is due to the fact that, in comparison to other disposal techniques like recycling, incineration, composting, and sanitary landfills, the operation of open dumpsites is comparatively inexpensive, convenient, and entails low technological obstacles3. 40 percent of the waste produced worldwide is thought to end up in open dumpsites, which serve about four billion people4. Physical, biological (fermentative) and chemical processes are all applied to wastes on the dumpsite5,6. There are no appropriately designed leachate confinement or treatment facilities at many municipal waste dumpsite. Therefore, there’s a chance that leachates containing hazardous metals will seep from the landfill, cover the whole surface of the soil, and finally make their way into groundwater and surface water bodies. Human, animal, and ecological health are at risk due to uncontrolled and unplanned open waste dumping, which is a significant source of contamination of groundwater, the air, and soil7. As a result, there are significant dangers to both human health and environmental quality. A variety of health risks can arise from an open dump, including the inhalation of poisonous fumes, the consumption of toxins both directly and indirectly, and skin contact with polluted soil and water8. Numerous investigations have demonstrated a notable level of heavy metal pollution in the surrounding soil due to leachate migration from waste disposal sites 9,10. Contamination of arsenic is also reported in a study conducted on soil around a municipal waste dumpsite11. Since arsenic contamination is earlier reported in the Rohtak district and assessment of arsenic around the Rohtak municipal waste dumpsite is not reported in any study. The present study was designed for the assessment of arsenic and physicochemical characteristics of soil around the open dumpsite of Rohtak city, Haryana.
Materials and Methodology
Details of study area, sampling locations and various methods adopted for physicochemical and arsenic analysis are described in following subsections. Statistical analysis like min, max, mean and pearson corelation matrix was also applied to the recorded data.
Study area
The study was conducted in the year 2024 (February 2024 to May 2024) at the Rohtak municipal waste dumpsite, situated in the village Sunariyan kalan and Jalalpur in Rohtak. Area of the dumpsite is approximately 35.4 Acre12. Figure 1 shows the process of waste segregation at study area.
Soil sample collection
Before collection of samples upper layer of soil was made garbage free. 13 Samples of soil were collected at the depth of 15 cm from different locations surrounding waste dumpsite within area of 2 km. Polythene bags with ziplocks were used for sampling and lebelled with paper tags. GPS locations of samples are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Sample numbers with respective locations
Sample No.
Latitude
Longitude
1
28.8617647 N
76.5818737 E
2
28.8798820 N
76.5531195 E
3
28.8778191 N
76.5392495 E
4
28.8798784 N
76.5531223 E
5
28.8873132 N
76.5518937 E
6
28.8765732 N
76.5410559 E
7
28.8798123 N
76.5531196 E
8
28.8798823 N
76.5531196 E
9
28.8582101 N
76.5396108 E
10
28.8721515 N
76.5291332 E
11
28.8570736 N
76.542501 E
12
28.8869566 N
76.5522086 E
13
28.8750789 N
76.5439461 E
Physicochemical analysis
After collection of soil samples, samples were air dried, crushed and sieved through 2 mm size sieve and are then subjected to various physical and chemical analysis. For pH and EC in soil, soil to water ratio of 1:2.5 immersion solution was prepared and values were recorded using digital pH Meter (LMPH-10) and conductivity Meter (LMCM-20) respectively. For moisture content, soil samples were initially weighed (initial wet weight) and then placed in a hot air oven (Model AI-7781) and were dried at a temperature of 60˚C – 70˚C for about 24 hours. The samples were then weighed again (final dry weight) and moisture content of soil was calculated using (equation 1)13.
Bulk density of soil was calculated by dividing the weight of oven-dried soil by the volume of the soil core at the respective depth (Equation 2)14.
Volume of soil core = 3.14.r2.h (where, r = inside radius and h = height of cylinder in cm)
Total organic carbon was determined by Walkey and Black Rapid titration method15. Organic matter was determined by using equation 3.
Soil texture and water holding capacity of soil was determined as per Adamu & Aliyu16. Chloride content is estimated by titration against AgNO3 solution 17.
Arsenic analysis
5 gm of soil sample was predigested using 10 ml concentrated nitric acid and 3 ml hydrogen peroxide, 5 ml of pyrocatechol containing Trilon B solution was also added to it to remove interferences. Arsenic was then analyzed by fluorimetric method using Fluorat 02 analyzer using equation 4.
Result and Discussion
Results of arsenic and physicochemical characteristics of soil around Rohtak municipal waste dumpsite are shown below in Table 2. Soil pH shows the indication of most chemical, physical and biological processes within the soil18. From Table 2, the range of pH of the various samples of different locations was found from 7.14 to 8.34. This indicates neutral to slightly alkaline nature of soils around dumpsite. This data is also supported by the other previously conducted studies on dumpsites by Uba et al.19 and Obasi et al. 20. These reports were concluded in a way that mostly documented pH values of soil around dumpsite are basic in nature due to the presence of liming materials and alkali-earth metals in abundant amount and there may be due to high activity of soil microorganisms over dumped waste. EC ranged from 1034-9536 with a mean value of 3484. If the organic carbon content of soil is below 0.5 %, that soil is considered as carbon deficient and if the carbon content is above 0.75 %, the soil is considered very rich in carbon 21, 22. Organic matter of the soil samples of present study ranged from 1.26 to 3.16 % with a mean value of 2.33 %, shows the presence of sufficient amount of organic carbon and organic matter. Water holding capacity of soil samples ranged from 51.02 % to 59.14 % with a mean value of 55.64 %. Moisture content was found from 3.12 to 13.86 % with mean value of 7.9 %. Values of bulk density were found from 1.28 – 1.89 g/cm3 with mean value of 1.58 g/cm3. Chloride content 358-4165 mg/kg with a mean value of 1679 mg/kg. Monitoring and testing of chloride content is required to prevent the salinity problem. Arsenic content in soil samples ranged from 410 to 840 ppb with a mean value of 618 ppb, which is below the permissible limit of 20 ppm for agricultural soil provided by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR)23 and European Community24. Higher concentration of arsenic around dumpsite may be due to discarded obsolete products such as electronics like circuit boards, treated woods and textile products etc. Pearson correlation matrix among conducted parameters is described in Table 3. Among various parameters, arsenic shows stronger negative correlation with pH of soil.
Table 2: Results and statistics of conducted soil parameters
Sample No.
pH
EC
(µS/cm)
Moisture content
(%)
Organic matter
(%)
Water holding capacity
(%)
Bulk density
(g/cm3)
Chloride
(mg/kg)
Arsenic content (ppb)
1
8.34
2454
3.12
3.16
59.14
1.77
986
490
2
7.76
8614
4.08
1.36
52.41
1.54
2246
570
3
7.68
9536
10.33
1.98
55.89
1.66
1196
600
4
7.14
1496
7.27
2.75
56.23
1.43
2956
770
5
7.49
2821
11.34
1.26
51.02
1.51
358
830
6
7.50
4125
11.12
2.08
55.67
1.62
2125
490
7
8.14
2145
3.34
2.74
56.99
1.89
412
410
8
7.82
2896
13.86
1.72
52.54
1.31
498
580
9
7.70
4257
8.88
2.98
57.36
1.56
1026
610
10
7.24
2899
5.04
2.50
56.87
1.54
768
730
11
7.78
1145
6.76
2.88
57.07
1.28
1996
410
12
7.91
1870
4.45
1.81
53.36
1.68
4165
710
13
7.86
1034
13.23
3.08
58.89
1.82
3098
840
Min
7.14
1034
3.12
1.26
51.02
1.28
358
410
Max
8.34
9536
13.86
3.16
59.14
1.89
4165
840
Mean
7.72
3484
7.90
2.33
55.64
1.58
1679
618
Table 3: Pearson correlation among chemical parameters. pH = soil reaction, EC = electrical conductivity, OM = Organic matter, Cl = chloride, As = arsenic
pH
EC
OM
Cl
As
pH
1
EC
-0.06209
1
OM
0.230408
-0.48457
1
Cl
-0.0915
-0.16895
0.047317
1
As
-0.51049
-0.1528
-0.19458
0.290899
1
Conclusion
Results of analysis of physicochemical properties of soil around Rohtak municipal waste dumpsite revealed that pH values were ranged from 7.14 to 8.34, which is the optimal range for microbial activities and nutrient uptake. The higher amount of organic carbon and organic matter have significant impact on bulk density and water holding capacity of soil. Assessed samples of soil revealed the presence of arsenic ranged from 410 ppb to 840 ppb. Results of present study reveals that soil around the dumpsite is contaminated with arsenic due to leaching process, though this lies within the permissible limit of 20 ppm for agricultural purposes. This draws the attentions towards the awareness and regular monitoring to ensure the waste segregation before dumping.
Acknowledgment
The authors are thankful to the Department of Environmental Science, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India for offering laboratory facilities to carry out this study.
Conflicts of Interest
There is no conflict of interest.
References
USEPA. 2021. https://www.epa.gov/hw/criteria-defnition-solidwaste-and-solid-and-hazardous-waste-exclusions#solidwaste
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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