Quality of groundwater contaminated by leachates from seven Polish landfills – chemical and ecotoxicological classifications

The article presents the results of screening research on acute toxicity of groundwater contaminated by leachates to the bacterium Vibrio fischeri (ToxAlert 100® test) and crustacean Daphnia magna ( Daphtoxkit F ™ magna test according to PN-EN ISO 6341), as well as on chronic toxicity to D. magna (test according to ISO 10706). The groundwater samples were taken from seven large city landfills in the Pomeranian province (Poland), which were open before 1990 and designed without proper attention to being leak-tight. Due to the lack of either European or Polish classification of ecotoxicological qualities of surface and underground waters, an attempt was made to evaluate the ecotoxicological quality of the examined waters on the basis of the Helsinki Committee's recommendations for industrial effluents, the classification of sediment according to Krebs (Krebs F. The pT-value as a classification index in aquatic toxicology. GIT Edition Umweltanalytik-Umweltschutz 1988;1:57–63) and the classification system of toxicity levels for natural waters and sewers, recently proposed by Persoone et al. (Persoone G, Marsalek B, Blinova, I, Törökne A, Zarina D, Manusadzianas L, Nalecz-Jawecki G, Tofan L, Stepanova N, Tothova L, Kolar B. A practical and user-friendly toxicity classification system with microbiotests for natural waters and wastewaters. Environ. Toxicol. 2003;18 (6):395-402).