Electromagnetic Profiling for Pollution Studies on Land Contiguos with a Landfill Facility in Kumasi, Ghana

This study aimed principally to ascertain if any, and to what extent, leachate has communicated into the adjoining lands from the operation of the landfill facility. In this investigation an EM ground conductivity survey was done using Geonics EM34-3 instrument. The EM34-3 has three intercoil spacings of 10, 20 and 40 m to vary the effective depth of exploration from 7.5 m to a maximum of 60 metres. Traverse lines were located at both sides of a creek into which the treated effluent is discharged. The equipment was set at 10 m, 20 m and 40 m interval spacing in both the vertical and horizontal dipole modes. At each station the horizontal dipole (HD) mode reading was taken first, followed by the vertical dipole (VD) mode, to probe different depths based on the respective intercoil spacing. Regions close to the banks of the stream were found to have high terrain conductivity but only limited to roughly 30 m on both sides of the creek. The apparent conductivity values are however, mitigated at depths. The results of the study, for now, do not project an eminent threat to the groundwater system.