Landfill Geophysical Imaging - Babica Landfill Case Study

One of major environmental challenges in Slovakia is to deal with numerous contaminated sites polluted by improper waste management in the past. We present a case study from Babica landfill located in western part of Slovakia near the village Bošany. The landfill was established in 1970, in a very inappropriate environment of abandoned meander. Waste composition of the Babica landfill is mainly formed by waste from the leather and footwear production. Broad spectrum of geophysical methods were applied on several profiles in order to describe the spatial limitation of landfill materials and to monitor the spread of contamination from the landfill in the surrounding environment. Combination of several geoelectrical methods (EMI, ERT, VES and SP) allows us to define the resistivity model of the area, where the contaminated area was clearly outlined by low resistivity values. Moreover VES measurements were sorted in four elementary classes defined by the shape of the VES curve, which allows us to create schematic model of the area. Self-Potential method proved the active connection of the abandoned meander with the river. Additionally, soil vapour method survey revealed three outbreaks of methane gas generation that are connected to the area near the old meander.