sustainability Article Hazardous Solid Waste Confined in Closed Dump of Morelia: An Urgent Environmental Liability to Attend in Developing Countries M. Lourdes González-Arqueros 1 , Gabriela Domínguez-Vázquez 2, Ruth Alfaro-Cuevas-Villanueva 3, Isabel Israde-Alcántara 3 and Otoniel Buenrostro-Delgado 3,* 1 CONACYT, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia 58000, Mexico;
[email protected] 2 Facultad de Biología, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia 58000, Mexico;
[email protected] 3 Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia 58000, Mexico;
[email protected] (R.A.-C.-V.);
[email protected] (I.I.-A.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +52-443-325-6301 Abstract: In developing countries, landfills of urban solid waste (USW) are a major source of contamination. One reason is the common practice of the illegal confinement of hazardous waste (HW). The contamination is mainly due to deficitary design location, operation and lack of liner, which enables the dispersion of pollutants. The aim of our work is to demonstrate the presence of heavy metals (HM) and arsenic (As) in USW of the closed dump of Morelia, which clandestinely confined HW for 20 years. Solid samples of USW were collected from eight opencast wells with Citation: González-Arqueros, M.L.; different age of confinement. Composition, degradation status, physical-chemical characterization Domínguez-Vázquez, G.; and analysis of HM and As were carried out. The results showed the presence of Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn, Cr, Alfaro-Cuevas-Villanueva, R.; Israde- Alcántara, I.; Buenrostro-Delgado, O.