Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Geophysical assessment of illegally buried toxic waste for a legal enquiry: A case study in Northern Ireland (UK)

Ruffell, Alastair; Pringle, Jamie K.; Graham, Conor; Langton, Mike; Jones, Glenda M.

Authors

Alastair Ruffell

Conor Graham

Mike Langton

Glenda M. Jones



Abstract

Buried illegal waste and uncontrolled legal waste dumps are a major problem throughout the world, both in developing and more economically developed countries. Criminal investigations can effectively use geoscience investigations to assist them to better understand how to locate and characterise such waste. When a case is brought to the courts, a number of facts must be presented, such as how the waste dump was located; its makeup, any leachate generation/movement; the waste volume and whether it has polluted areas outside of owner’s land. This paper presents a brief overview of how this currently occurs and evidences this by a case study. The case study illustrates how a combination of geodetic topographic and near-surface geophysics surveys were used successfully to determine the amount of illegal waste present on a site, in a case brought by environmental law enforcement agencies.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2018
Online Publication Date Nov 14, 2018
Publication Date Dec 1, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Environmental Forensics
Print ISSN 1527-5922
Publisher Taylor and Francis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 4
Pages 239-252
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/15275922.2018.1519740
Keywords illegally-buried waste, security, geophysics, resistivity, GPR
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/15275922.2018.1519740