The actual sanitary landfill deposit of Alagoinhas county was constructed at the neighborhood of an old city dump and of a large tannery industry. Such dangerous pollution sources are located above the recharge area of the São Sebastião aquifer, one the most important water reservoirs of Bahia state, being exploited to supply human and animals populations in the county, irrigated agricultures and industries. To characterize the hydrological and environmental changes generated both by landfill leachates and tannery byproducts we applied electrical geophysical surface measurements combined with water samples physical chemistry analysis. The results of 49 vertical electrical soundings were used to delineate a three-dimensional conductive anomaly, which extends from the water table (about 10 m depth), to more than 40 m in depth. Such anomaly is interpreted as a result from the invasion of aqueous fluids derived from the garbage deposits and from the tannery decantation lagoon into the upper phreatic, regional aquifer of the area. Water analysis were made in six water wells and in three surface water samples collected in the Sauípe river and at one of its tributary, were industrial effluents are being disposed. The results reveal an extensive contamination of the groundwater and surface waters within the studied area. It has growth above the standard limits in the concentrations of Chromium Cr(III), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammonia (NH3) and total Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P), suspended and dissolved solids, and cations Na, K, Mg, Ca, and anions Cl and SO4.
Vertical Electrical Soundings (VES); water contamination; leachate landfill; tannery
