Landfill disposal creates a repository of elements at significantly elevated levels. Entropy dictates that elements at elevated concentrations will be emitted into the surrounding environment. Most regulatory authorities stipulate generic or site specific concentration criteria to determine whether a landfill is causing contamination. However, if the mass flux of such elements is sufficiently less than surrounding natural or anthropogenic flux levels the environmental impact of the landfill may be significantly less than that based upon concentrations alone. The approach presented is an alternative way to look at the impact of landfills and potentially other waste processing facilities. It allows the long term impacts to be assessed and provides the ability to look at comparative impact for a given element. The approach also enables impacts to be assessed in terms of mass flux rather than concentration. This consideration may yield a more appropriate consideration of the environmental impacts.
A landfill owner is generally liable for any damage due to contamination for the Ôactive lifeÕ of the landfill. In this context the Ôactive lifeÕ refers to the polluting life of the landfill which is very much dependent upon the landfill design philosophy. These philosophies make no distinction between individual elements (Carbon, Nitrogen, metals etc). Consequently the active landfill life will be the time taken for all elements to achieve acceptable concentrations. An significant development in landfill in Europe and elsewhere is the use of a landfill philosophy termed final storage quality. This philosophy approaches landfill design in a revolutionary way in that the elemental fluxes are analysed individually. However, if the mass flux of such elements is sufficiently less than natural or anthropogenic flux levels the environmental impact may be significantly more or less than that based upon concentrations only.
