Range of Contaminant Transport in Soil Under Saturated/ Unsaturated Conditions With Case Study

Abstract

AbstractContaminant movement through soil and groundwater contamination are one of the common environmental problems nowadays. Leakage of toxic fluids into the soil and groundwater could create a serious environmental problems. Most growing countries municipal use of open dumps directly without using lining for the solid waste disposal. The presence of groundwater near the waste landfill and its seasonal changes plays an important role in the contaminant transport on the surrounding sites. This necessitate studying the range of movement of contaminants in the soil.This work aims to study the effect of some variables on the rang of contaminant movement in the saturated/unsaturated soils such as: soil type, contaminant type and concentration as well as the hydraulic condition of soil. Finite element GEO-SLOPE software was used in the analysis. Three soil types (CH,CL,SM) was considered as a waste disposal location. Analysis also was applied for the selected site of a landfill located in the Mosul city. The results show that the soil condition has a clear effect on the range of contaminated transmission through soil. It was also observed that the concentration of contaminants through a higher permeability soil is greater especially in the side of the landfill. Keywords: Contaminant, finite element, unsaturated soil, diffusion, GEO-SLOPE.