Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 344-352 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.44041 Published Online April 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep) Assessment of Heavy Metals and Organics in Municipal Solid Waste Leachates from Landfills with Different Ages in Jordan Malyuba Abu-Daabes 1* , Hani Abu Qdais 2 , Hatem Alsyouri 3 1 Pharmaceutical-Chemical Engineering Department, German-Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan; 2 Department of Civil Engineer- ing, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan; 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. Email: * malyuba.abudaabes@gju.edu.jo, hqdais@just.edu.jo, Alsyouri@ju.edu.jo Received February 11 th , 2013; revised March 15 th , 2013; accepted April 14 th , 2013 Copyright © 2013 Malyuba Abu-Daabes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT A comprehensive assessment of heavy metals and organic content was performed for leachates produced from a number of old and new landfills in Jordan over 9 month in efforts to set a framework for treatment regulations. All leachates were basic (pH = 7 - 9) and have high electric conductivity and high organic contents (COD = 3000 - 500,000 mg/L, TOC= 500 - 21,000 mg/L). The organic content was inversely proportional to the age of landfill. Heavy metals analysis showed no significant threat of Co, Zn, Pb and Al in any site. Meanwhile, the concentrations of Cr, Mn, Ni, Cd and As were high, exceeding local and international standard limits. Typical physical, chemical and biological treatments can be employed to upgrade the leachates of the active Ghabawi and Akaider sites. Whereas for the high organic strength of Russeifeh, an adsorption treatment by activated carbon is recommended. Keywords: Landfill; Leachate; Heavy Metals; Organic; Jordan; Ghabawi; Akaider; Russeifah 1. Introduction Several countries rely on landfilling as a primary solid waste disposal method which is widely known to yield a wastewater product called leachate. The leachate is formed as a result of multiple chemical and biological reactions of solid waste within the landfill and can be a major contamination problem if not controlled properly. Organic and inorganic compounds leach out from the solid matrix into a liquid carrier (normally water) form- ing a wastewater with extremely high contamination strength exceeding that of municipal and industrial waste- waters [1]. Landfill leachate can cause severe health and environmental impacts represented by toxicity, soil, groundwater and surface water contamination [2-4] which implies the necessity for leachate treatment before its ultimate disposal. Several countries around the world are enforcing more stringent regulations regarding the disposal of landfill leachate [5]. Jordan is a Middle-Eastern country that re- lies exclusively on landfilling. Currently, there are 21 operating landfills in Jordan generating large amounts of leachate, unfortunately, with insufficient enforcement of leachate disposal regulations, although the country is very scarce in water supply. One reason is the lack of comprehensive information on leachate characteristics and their threat on the water resources in this arid area. Therefore, understanding and monitoring the composi- tion and quantity of landfill leachates are essential in selecting a satisfactory treatment method for pollutants removal and protecting possible groundwater from con- tamination [6]. In general, the goal of leachate treatment is to reduce the concentration of pollutants or to stabilize them in order to comply with regulations and standards of discharge into the environment. Alternatively, lea- chates can be upgraded to levels treatable by conven- tional municipal wastewater treatment facilities. Leachates are generally studied for their organic con- tents, in terms of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC), salts content, and heavy metals concentrations [7]. Some researchers have quanti- fied the leachate contamination potential using a leachate pollution index (LPI) [1]. In an attempt to make this in- dex more representative and universal, the overall LPI was divided into three sub-indices summed linearly using * Corresponding author. Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JEP