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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Water
Sec. Environmental Water Quality
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2024.1480241

Landfill leachate treatment process is transforming and releasing banned per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to UK water

Provisionally accepted
David Megson David Megson 1*Pippa Neill Pippa Neill 2
  • 1 Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom
  • 2 ENDS, Twickenham, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Landfills are a known source of PFAS pollution. Many have environmental permits allowing the discharge of treated leachate to controlled waters. In this article we compared leachate data for 17 PFAS from 17 different landfill sites across the UK. The results show that the landfill leachate treatment process (designed to improve water quality) is generating the banned PFAS; PFOA and PFOS. Approximately 80% of locations tested showed an increase in PFOS, with an increase of 1,335% in one sample. The highest concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in treated leachate were 2,460 ng L -1 and 26,900 ng L -1 respectively. When compared against the environmental quality standard of 0.65 ng L -1 for PFOS this leachate could pose a significant concern. Landfill leachate treatment has proven effective for a wide range of different pollutants, but this research shows in several instances that it is not appropriate for PFAS remediation.

    Keywords: per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, PFOs, pfoa, landfill leachate, Waste Water Treatment, Effluent

    Received: 13 Aug 2024; Accepted: 18 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Megson and Neill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: David Megson, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.