An analysis of the impact of a liqudated salt mine and an municipal landfill on the quality of the Malinówka stream water in the former Barycz mining area

Monitoring studies of the quality of the soil and water environment in the former Barycz mining area of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a section currently used as municipal landfill, have been continuously conducted since 2000. The location of monitoring sites and the range of the monitored parameters were selected based on available historical data, taking into account the local geological and hydrogeological structure as well as hydrological conditions in the area of potential impact of the landfill. The Malinówka catchment monitoring study conducted by Wieliczka Salt Mine and MEERI PAS covers both a point above the landfill (point E) and a point located below the municipal landfill (point D) (Fig. 1). The adopted sampling scheme allows a comparison of the current level of contamination below the landfill with the local hydrogeochemical background, which the results of the measurements of the chemical composition of water in the headwater region of the Malinówka stream may be taken to represent. The paper presents averaged quarterly results of water quality measurements of the Malinówka stream between 2012 and 2014. Chloride, nitrate, and phosphate concentrations in the waters of the Malinówka stream sampled at the site below the landfill were, on average, several times higher than in the headwater regions. The chloride content in the water below the landfill was, on average, about 50 mg/dm3, while below the landfill it increased four-fold. Nitrate and phosphate content increased several-fold, but presented low values of up to several mg/dm3. Generally, there was no significant increase in heavy metal content at the site below the landfill. Their values both at point E as well as point D are low, often below the limit of quantification. In the waters of the Malinówka stream below the landfill (point D), only small increases in copper, zinc, and mercury content, and in individual cases chromium, were observed.