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2002 | Buch

Mine Water

Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation

verfasst von: Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buchreihe : Environmental Pollution

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Über dieses Buch

Nowhere is the conflict between economic progress and environmental quality more apparent than in the mineral extraction industries. The latter half of the 20th century saw major advances in the reclamation technologies. However, mine water pollution problems have not been addressed. In many cases, polluted mine water long outlives the life of the mining operation. As the true cost of long-term water treatment responsibilities has become apparent, interest has grown in the technologies that would decrease the production of contaminated water and make its treatment less costly. This is the first book to address the mine water issue head-on. The authors explain the complexities of mine water pollution by reviewing the hydrogeological context of its formation, and provide an up-to-date presentation of prevention and treatment technologies. The book will be a valuable reference for all professionals who encounter polluted mine water on a regular or occasional basis.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter One. Mining and the Water Environment
Abstract
It is difficult to over-state the importance of mining to the development and sustenance of modern society (Shepherd, 1993). The appropriation of natural earth resources for human use is apparently instinctive, and operates at every level of social organisation: from the hunter-gatherer constructing a temporary shelter with loose boulders, to an international corporation extracting and processing many tonnes of host rock to obtain a few grams of precious metal. The extraction and processing of minerals is a prerequisite for the lifestyle of all advanced societies, to the extent that a blanket opposition to all mining is a difficult position for even the most dedicated of anti-mining pressure groups to sustain1. The all-pervading influence of mining on contemporary urban life is readily appreciated by the simple exercise of examining your surroundings and reflecting on the origins of the various materials you see. Above are the results of undertaking this exercise in the author’s study.
Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin
Chapter Two. Mine Water Chemistry
Abstract
The minerals and coal that represent economically valued ores are largely chemically stable under in situ geological conditions. When excavated and exposed to the atmosphere, however, these solid phases become chemically unstable. Coal and hydrocarbons can be oxidized through combustion to gain useful energy. The sulfide minerals associated with metal ores and present as sulfur contamination in coal will spontaneously dissolve when in contact with water. The chemical weathering of sulfide minerals represents a series of linked geochemical and microbiologically-mediated reactions through which contaminants are released from ore and mine waste into the hydrological cycle and become mobile and thus bioavailable as potentially toxic solutes.
Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin
Chapter Three. Mine Water Hydrology
Abstract
Hydrology is a relatively young science, which has developed gradually out of the hydraulic expedients which underpin much of civil engineering practice. Indeed, the emergence of truly scientific hydrology is such a recent development that major textbooks and learned journals have until recently devoted many pages to discussing its scientific credentials (Bras, 1990; Wilby, 1997). Until the 1980s most hydrological analysis was concerned with purely physical processes and practices of engineering interest, such as rainfall-runoff modelling and flow-net analysis of seepage pathways. By the start of the 21st Century, the scope of hydrology has expanded to such an extent that it now embraces relevant areas of chemistry and ecology. Sub-disciplines such as hydrogeochemistry (e.g. Appelo and Postma, 1994) and hydroecology (or ecohydrology; Baird and Wilby, 1999) are now firmly established, and account for a large proportion of the innovation in hydrological science (see, for instance, Wilby, 1997, and Wheater and Kirby, 1998). The “scientification” of hydrology has now proceeded to such an extent that Wilby (1997) could claim that hydrology provides the most logical basis for ‘holistic environmental science’, since water is a prominent medium in all of the earth and life sciences which deal with the natural environment. In the light of these trends, a contemporary definition of hydrology might be given as follows:
“Hydrology is the science which deals with the nature, movement and environmental functions of terrestrial natural waters”
Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin
Chapter Four. Active Treatment of Polluted Mine Waters
Abstract
Before about 1980 (e.g. Barton, 1978), the only proven technologies for mine water treatment were those which we now term “active treatment”. Active treatment is conventional waste water engineering applied to mine waters. The following formal definition of active treatment emphasizes the ways in which it differs from passive treatment (see Chapter 5):
“Active treatment is the improvement of water quality by methods which require ongoing inputs of artificial energy and/or (bio)chemical reagents”
Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin
Chapter Five. Passive Treatment of Polluted Mine Waters
Abstract
As contaminated mine waters flow into and through receiving systems (streams, rivers, wetlands and lakes), their toxic characteristics commonly decrease. Many studies (e.g. Tuttle et al., 1969, Wieder and Lang 1982; Huntsman 1978; Stark et al., 1990; Herlihy and Mills 1985) have shown that this amelioration in quality occurs as a result of:
  • natural chemical and biological reactions and
  • dilution with uncontaminated waters.
The net result is that potentially ecotoxic metals are removed from solution, and therefore placed largely out of harm’s reach, by precipitation as hydroxide, oxide, sulfate, sulfide and (less commonly) carbonate minerals. Acidity is neutralized by:
  • mixing with waters which already possess alkalinity and/or
  • liberation of alkalinity from minerals (by in situ dissolution of pre-existing carbonate minerals, especially calcite, but to a lesser extent dolomite also) and/or
  • generation of alkalinity from organic matter by heterotrophic microbial processes. During the last 15 years, the possibility that natural ameliorative processes might be harnessed in mine water treatment systems has developed into a practice referred to as passive treatment. Although the term ‘passive treatment’ has been in use for almost a decade at the time of writing (e.g. Cohen and Staub, 1992), formal definitions of the term are not easy to find. The following definition of the term was coined by William Pulles of South Africa, and subsequently formally adopted by the European Union’s PIRAMID R&D project (www.piramid.org):
    “Passive treatment is the deliberate improvement of water quality using only naturally-available energy sources (e.g. gravity, microbial metabolic energy, photosynthesis), in systems which require only infrequent (albeit regular) maintenance in order to operate effectively over the entire system design life”
Paul L. Younger, Steven A. Banwart, Robert S. Hedin
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Mine Water
verfasst von
Paul L. Younger
Steven A. Banwart
Robert S. Hedin
Copyright-Jahr
2002
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-94-010-0610-1
Print ISBN
978-1-4020-0138-3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0610-1