ABSTRACT
Waste disposal sites located near settlements, towns and cities have been a feature of public sanitation for human societies for hundreds, even thousands, of years. In a sanitary role these disposal sites have, until the latter half of the twentieth century, served as the final destination for a wide range of organic and inorganic materials considered of little further use. With the permanency and growth of populations in towns and cities, the noxious effects of disposal sites became familiar; but scientific control of these effects has attracted limited attention from trained professionals until the past several decades. Effects of these disposal sites, however, include the presence of a variety of animals and insects that feed on organic materials, intense odors generated from biological decomposition, the volatilization and release of stresscausing or hazardous chemicals to air and seepage into the soil — and frequently into groundwater or surface water (ponds, rivers and estuaries) — of a mixture of chemicals that can impair water resource quality.
