Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-018-2124-x ORIGINAL PAPER Impacts of landfll leachate on groundwater quality in desert climate regions A. T. Ahmed 1,2  · A. E. Alluqmani 2  · Md. Shafquzzaman 3 Received: 23 July 2018 / Revised: 6 October 2018 / Accepted: 15 November 2018 © Islamic Azad University (IAU) 2018 Abstract Control and management of landfll leachate are the most important concerns to protect the surrounding environment, espe- cially the groundwater. In this study, an attempt was carried out to design an approximate tool for fnding the safe ground- water withdrawal away from the pollution sources. A case study was applied to a landfll site in a desert climate region, at Mufrihat, the south western region of the Madinah City, KSA. Three boreholes were adopted to monitor the groundwater quality close to leachate collection lake of the landfll site. A 3D simulation model, combining modular fnite-diference fow model and the modular three-dimensional transport model, was applied to the leachate collection site to understand the fate and migration of the leachate from collection site bed into the groundwater. The focus of this work was to predict the distribution of heavy metal concentration with both time and distance and to determine the safe location for water extraction from this aquifer. Results showed a good match between numerical model results and experimental measurements. Based on this math and sensitivity analyses performed by the computer model, an empirical mobility model was generated to sup- port the decision makers of this area and similar regions to estimate the safe location for water withdrawal according to the initial concentration of the element, pumping rate and contact time. The mobility model showed that the well located at a minimum of 113 m away from the leachate collection lake would be safe from all studied pollutants. Keywords Contamination migration · Groundwater · Modelling · Municipal solid waste · Landfll · Leaching Introduction Population growth and rapid urbanization worldwide led to signifcantly increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation. Most urbanized cities are now struggling with the problem of huge amount of waste and its proper man- agement and the impact to the local and global environment (Naveen et al. 2017). There are many options for solid waste management. Landflling solid waste in dumpsites is the easiest and the most practiced option for handling the huge amounts of the waste generated daily. However, the disposal of waste in the dumpsites is the most dangerous management option as the accumulation of solid waste generates a squash of very concentrated leachate, especially when exposed to water. Even with using the engineering sanitary landfll hav- ing a lining system, the risk of infltration of this harmful leachate is still high (Smith et al. 1996). The product of the landfll leaching process is the lea- chate. It is defned as attainted fuid originating from the bottom of the solid waste disposal facilities that contains both soluble organic and inorganic compounds as well as suspended particles (Naveen et al. 2017). Depending upon the nature of solid waste buried, chemical and biochemi- cal processes responsible for the decomposition of waste materials and total water content in waste, the composition of landfll leachate is wide-ranging (Fatta et al. 1999). This leachate composition contains many harmful chemicals such as heavy metals and salts. Many dangerous materials were also recognized in landfll leachate, such as halogenated compounds, phenols, aromatics and pesticides (Devare and Bahadir 1994). These chemicals fnd their ways into surface Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour. * A. T. Ahmed dratahmed@yahoo.com 1 Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt 2 Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 3 Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia