th

The 12 International Conference of

International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG)
1-6 October, 2008
Goa, India

Assessment of Ground Contamination at Perungudi Municipal

Dumping Yard in Chennai

M.Padmavathi
Dept.of civil Engineering,Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University,Kakinada,India

Keywords: chemical constituents, physico-chemical, chlorides,sulphates, pH

ABSTRACT: The Perungudi dumping yard is one of the major dumping yards of Chennai city and started
functioning since 1987. In the recent past, it is found that the site is subjected to many environmental changes
due to leachate occuring around the dumping area. The leachate coming out from the waste might caused the
contaminantion of the ground and ground water and in turn change in physico chemical properties of soil. In this
paper, the analysis of small scale investigation carried out to trace out the type of chemical constitutents involved
in the soil and water are presented. The soil samples were collected in a radial distance of about 1 kilo metre
from different points of the vicinity of dumping yard source. The chemical properties such as chlorides, sulphates
and pH are analysed and discussed. Also the presnt results (2002) analysed are compared with the results of
the same site being carried out in the year 1999. From the comparative results, it is noticed that within a three
years of span there is a two to three fold increase in the contamination levels of soil and water. Also noticed that
there is a reduced concetration levels of contamination in soil and water as the radial distance increase from the
dumping source.

1 Introduction
The relationship of man with environment is necessarily symbiotic and hence the equilibrium between the two
must be mainted in all aspects. During the last few decades, man’s relationship with environment has drastically
changed due to industrialization. Large quantities of solid wastes are being disposed off on land,land being an
effective medium for disposal of soild wastes. Due to increasing urbanization .The quantity of muncipal and
industrial waste generated by the society is constantly increasing .In India per capita production of solid wastes is
estimated as 0.45kg/day in urban areas and half of that in rural areas(Misra and Mani,1993).the problem
associated with the disposal of wastes ,began to assume gigantic proportion with the increase in population. For
economic considerations the industrial and urban wastes are disposed off mostly by dumping in low lying and
waste land areas located in and around the city limits. Disposal sites for urban trash ,also called land fills or open
dumps, is a major environmental problem present worldwide on account of the health hazards they pose, though
this open dumping may solve the problem of utilizing useless lands for the disposal.Due to the all disposable
activities ,the Geotechnical Engineer is faced to new problem emerging from the task of protecting the
environment and also on problems related to prevention of natural hazards.(Kaman ed,M., and Balkama,
A.A.,1997).One of the important areas of geo-environmental engineering is site investigation and
characterization, which is essential to obtain different chemical constituents present in soil and also possible to
explore remedial measures.Perungudi dumping yard is an open unengineered dump. This study on the
contaminated soil in and around Perungudi is to project the deleterious effect of the presence of different
chemical constituents in soil and to create awareness among engineers about this type of soil, so that the
construction materials and methods can be reviewed and adopted suitably.

2 Study area
The existing dump site at Perungudi is located approximately 1.2 km south of the city center. The land fill lies
between 2 km to 3 km west of the Buckingham canal and approximately 3.5km to4.5km away from the Bay of
Bengal coast line. The proposed development site occupies an extensive area of marsh land and mud slats
adjacent to, and west of ,the Perungudi sewage treatment works operated by Metro water.Metrowater’s current
land holding extends to approximately 364 ha of which approximately 25 ha has been over tipped with municipal
solid waste by Chennai corporation since 1987.The whole of the area is low lying, being closed to sea level and
is poorly drained being occupied by extensive areas of marsh land and mud slats which are permanently wet and
seasonally inundated .Velaxchery marsh lies immediately north to the site. The key map of Perungudi dumping
yard with other relevant details are shown in figure 1.

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 Figure 1. Location of Perungudi Landfill showing surrounding land use
Waste delivery vehicles access the site from the old mahabalipuram to the east of the site.After weighing in over
the weigh bridge at the site entrance adjacent to to the STW offices, vehicles proceed directly to the current
tipping area where they are directed to unload their wastes. site roads are developed on compacted waste and
during periods of wet weather they are proned to a loss of bearing capacity as a result of water logging or
flooding.Waste was dumped directly into water and become submerged during periods of elevated water levels.
No engineering measures are undertaken to isolate the deposited waste from surface water and ground water.
and to prevent the free flow of water into and out of land fill site. No daily or intermediate cover of any description
is placed over the spread waste to inhibit the ingress of surface water .the presence clinical waste .and potentially
some hazardous wastes, onsite compounds the environmental health risks of such site management
practices.(Mallikarjunaiah, N.,1984)

2.2 Geology and soils

The entire area of Chennai is covered by Pleistocene/recent alluvium is underlain by the crystalline complex of
charnokite,granite gneiss types of rock at depths ranging from 10m to20m below ground level.A similar sequence
of soil strata was recorded in almost all locations beneath the municipal solid waste.(Dhanasekar,T.,1990) A
black soft clay of 2m 2.5m thickness exist immediately beneath the solid waste. The black soft clay layer turns
into grey firm silty clay at a depth of 2m to2.5m.the thickness of the second layer is around 1.5m to2m.This silty
clay layer is underlined by affirm to stiff greenish yellow silty ,sandy clays of 3m thickness. This layer is followed
by medium dense to dense yellowish green, weakly cemented clay sands(Dhanasekhar, T.,1980).

2.3 Surface drainage

Surface water is stored in marshlands of dumping yard for long periods because of its low elevation above sea
level, higher elevations along the eastern margin of the depression, long drainage path and extremely low
hydraulic gradients.

3 Experimental procedure

3.1 Source and Sampling Locations

The source is the Perungudi dumping yard in Perungudi. Figure 2 shows the sampling locations. The first three
locations are at a radial distance of 0.85km from the boundary of dumping yard and next three locations are at a
radial distance of 1.2km away from the dumping yard. The adjacent distance between any two locations vary
from 0.5 km to 0.9 km. The sampling locations along I arc and II arc are given below in table 1.At each location
,disturbed soil samples were collected by drilling a borehole up to a depth of 3.5 m to 4 m by hand auger.
Representative samples were collected wherever the soil strata changes and also for every 0.5 m depth.

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 Figure 2. Sampling locations

Table.1 Sampling locations along I and II radial arc.

S.NO Location Name Place

1 L1 Sai Nagar
2 L2 Sravana Nagar
3 L3 Rajiv Nagar
4 L4 Telephone Nagar
5 L5 Hi-Mu Factory
6 L6 Pillayar Koil Street

3.2 Geotechnical testing programme

The laboratory testing for classification was conducted on all the collected soil samples as per relevant codal
procedures. Test results are presented in tables 2 to 7.From test results of Tables 2 to 7,it was observed that all
the soils in the selected locations are clayey sand (SC type)but the color of the soil was different. A poorly graded
sand was observed in all the bore logs at different depths variying from 0.3 to 1.5 m. A well graded sandy layer
was observed at location No.2 between 0.3m to 0.56m depth. Tables 2 to 7 are indicating the general
homogeneity with respect to soil classification.The laboratory permeability test was conducted on remolded soil at
2.5 m depth for a density of 17 kN/m3 .The coefficient of permeability was found to be in the range of 2.196×10-2
-2
mm/sec to 2.215×10 mm/sec.

Table.2.Bore Log details at Location No.1 Sai Nagar

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description IS
Gravity
GL of soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %
Brownish 09 2.72 SC
0.3 green clayey 25 16 61 16 23
sand
1.5 Brown Sand - - - 96 0 04 2.56 SP

2.2 Pinkish 35 19 16 78 3 19 2.65 SC

Clayey Sand
3.5 Light brown 32 18 14 70 11 19 2.68 SC
clayey sand

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 Table.3.Bore Log details at Location No.2 Saravana Nagar

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description of IS
Gravity
GL soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %
Brownish 09 2.55 SC
0.5 green clayey 25 16 62 10 18
sand
1.65 Brown Sand - - - 96 01 04 2.57 SW
2.6 Pinkish 23 15 08 59 11 30 2.60 SC
Clayey Sand
3.5 Light brown 32 17 76 06 18 2.65 SC
clayey sand 15

Table.4.Bore Log details at Location No.3 Rajiv Nagar

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description of IS
Gravity
GL soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %
Brownish 09 2.55 SC
0.3 green clayey 26 17 65 12 23
sand
1.5 Brown Sand - - - 95 01 04 2.57 SP

2.2 Pinkish 26 17 09 57 06 37 2.60 SC

Clayey Sand
Light brown SC
3.5 35 18 17 78 03 19 2.65
clayey sand

Table.5.Bore Log details at Location No.4 Telephone Nagar

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description of IS
Gravity
GL soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %

0.4 Greyish 28 19 09 65 12 23 2.71 SC

clayey sand
1.6 Brown Sand - - - 94 01 03 2.6 SP
2.3 Whitish red 36 20 16 64 10 26 2.67 SC
Clayey Sand
Brownish SC
4.0 green clayey 37 20 17 63 06 31 2.65
sand

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 Table.6.Bore Log details at Location No.5 HI-mu Fatory

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description of IS
Gravity
GL soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %

0.3 Greyish 27 18 09 65 09 26 2.71 SC

clayey sand
1.6 Brown Sand - - - 96 0 04 2.56 SP
2.7 Whitish red 26 16 10 69 10 21 2.67 SC
Clayey Sand
Brownish SC
3.3 green clayey 24 15 09 68 10 22 2.69
sand

Table.7.Bore Log details at Location No.6. Pillayar koil street

Depth Atterberg Limits

Gradation Analysis Specific
below Description of IS
Gravity
GL soil Classification
Sand Silt Clay (Gs)
(m) WL Wp IP
% % %

0.4 Greyish 27 15 12 66 15 19 2.67 SC

clayey sand
1.5 Brown Sand - - - 95 0 05 2.65 SP
2.6 Greyish 23 15 08 67 12 21 2.56 SC
clayey sand
Brownish SC
3.5 green clayey 30 18 12 77 08 15 2.67
sand

3.3 Chemical Analysis of soil extracts

Chemical analysis was carried out on soil extracts as per the relevant IS 2720 codal procedures for pH, Chlorides,
and Sulphates. The variation of chemical properties of soil extracts in the 6 locations are represented in the
following graphs as Figure 3,Figure.4 and Figure.5.

H
Figure 3. P variation with respect to depth. Figure 4.Chlorides variation with respect to depth.

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 Figure 5.Sulphates variation with respect to depth.

4.0 Discussion

4.1 Chemical analysis of soil extracts

The pH value of 4.0 indicates the acidic nature of the soil. At some locations the soil is alkaline in nature. The
reduction in pH value may be explained as follows. The soil particles present in the soil material may undergo
displacement or replacement reactions in a much faster manner in the beginning and after the salts settled in the
pores and causes a decrease in pH value. The organic matter present in the solid waste may occupy the pores
H
present in the soil and the decomposition with time might vary, so decrease in p may be observed .The variation
H
in p is mainly due to inflow water characteristics of solid wastes and the constituents present in the soil.The
chloride content is more concentrated between 1.5m to 2.5m depth. Variation in the chloride content may be due
to changes in the salt content. The organic matter present in the solid waste may also increase the chloride
content of soil because the solid waste contains more vegetables and food waste(Sivapullaiah,P.V., and
Sridhran, A.,1985).The sulphate content is more concentrated between 2m to 3m depth..The variation in sulphate
content of the soil may be due to chemical alteration, bacteria attack or both, which changes the solid waste
properties significantly and due to the decomposition in land fills the solid waste temperature increases. When
temperatures are high, the detention times are long and sulphate concentrations are appreciable.
The estimated values of chemical analysis tests are compared with the data obtained during the year 1999-
october(Sivakumar, D.,1999).Comparision is presented in Table 8. From this,it is observed that there is a drastic
H
variation in the chlorides, sulphates and p Value. Chloride contents are increased in locations No: 1 , 2 and 3
which were located very close to the dumping yard.The sulphate content was increased at all locations , where
as the pH is decreased to less than 5.5 at first 3 locations. This indicates the increase in the pollution levels of soil
within a period of 2 years.

Table 8.Comparison of chemical test data (2002)with soil data of Perungudi

obtained in 1999-October(Sivakumar, D.,1999) at a depth of 2m.

Chlorides Sulphates H
Location p
(%) (%)

Perungudi soil
0.0125 0.0106 7.4
data(1999-Oct)

Sai Nagar 0.183 0.149 4.74

Saravana Nagar 0.131 0.157 4.4

Rajiv Nagar 0.136 0.158 5.25

Telephone Nagar 0.06 0.145 6.55

Hi-Mu Factory 0.027 0.152 6.52

Pillayar koil Street 0.312 0.197 6.44

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4.2 General recommendations
Referring to IS 456 (2000) codal recommendations for “requirements of concrete exposed to sulphate attack”, the
criteria for sulphate effect on foundations for soil extracts are presented in table 9.When the chemical test results
for soil extracts compared with the above criteria, almost all soil samples falls in the range of 0.083-0.17.i.e; the
intensity of sulphate is of positive effect. At locations 3,5 and 6 the sulphate content exceeded 0.17 percentage
and will have a considerable effect on the foundations.

Table 9. Sulphate effect on foundations (IS: 456 –2000)

Sulphate SO3(5) Effect
0-0.083 Negligible
0.083-0.17 Positive
0.17-0.42 Considerable
>0.42 Severe

5 Conclusions
Finally it is concluded that Perungudi soil chemical properties have been changed due to the effect of municipal
solid waste dumping and it will be more severe in future days.
The intensity of sulphate content and chloride content was increased appreciably and necessary precautionary
measures should be taken for the construction of foundations. The current investigation can be considered as a
basis for the future investigation.

6 Notations

WL = Liquid Limit

wp = Plastic Limit

I P = Plasticity Index

Gs = Specific Gravity of Soil solids

7 References
Dhanasekhar,T.,(1990).Laboratory studies on settlement of land fill materials.M.E.Thesis,Anna University.
IS:456 (2000) –Revised Standard code for Concrete Structures.
Indian Geotechnical Society . Chennai Chapter (2000). Current trends in Environmental Geotechnics. Proceedings of one day
seminar.

Kamon ed,m, and Balkama ,A.A., (1997). Proceedings of the second International Congress on Environ mental Geotechnics.
Vol.1.

Kamon ed,m, and Balkama ,A.A., (1997).Proceedings of the second International Congress on Environ mental
Geotechnics.Vol.2.

Kamon ed,m, and Balkama ,A.A., (1997). Proceedings of the second International Congress on Environ mental Geotechnics.
Vol.3.

Misra ,S.H., and Mani ,D., (1993).Pollution through solid waste.Ashish Publishing House, New Delhi.

Mallikarjunaiah,N., (1985) .Engineering Characteristics of Certain land fills in in Madras. M.E.Thesis ,Anna University.
Siva Kumar .D, (1999) .Solid Waste Leachate Quantity and Quality Estimation. ,M.Tech Thesis ,Chennai.
Sivapullaiah ,P.V., and Sridhran,A.,(1985). Effect of polluted water on the Physico-Chemical properties of clayey soils.Proc.of
the Symp.on Environmental Geotechnics and Problematic soils and rocks,Bangkok,December.
Stalin V.K., et al.(2001) .Foundations problems in acidic environmnt.International Conference on Civil Engineering,Vol.2-
Contributed papers

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