Modeling leachate generation: practical scenarios for municipal solid waste landfills in Poland

The idea of water balance calculations within the landfill is to determine the distribution of water input and output, and finally the volume of leachate generated. The scope of this data is essential for rational planning of water and wastewater management, and designing leachate drainage network and leachate treatment systems. The aim of this study was to assess the possible amounts of leachate generation regarding ten different scenarios of landfill sealing systems. The calculations were performed using the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model. It was revealed that the greatest share among the components of water balance in the landfill has precipitation (on average 509 mm in the 5-year period of simulation), together with evapotranspiration (on average 391 mm in the 5-year period of simulation). The study shows that the minimum amount of leachate (797–803 m3/year) occurs when the best placement quality (=5) is regarded for the geomembrane installed in the bottom of the landfill. The maximum leachate generation (830 m3/year) was found for those scenarios in which only three layers of bottom sealing systems were adopted, with the worst placement quality (=1) assigned to geomembranes. The results of this study confirm that the application of multilayer sealing systems has visible impact on the reduction of leachate generation of around 33 m3/year.