Water pollution mining

Glover, H. G. 1983. Mine water pollution - an overview of problems and control strategies in the United Kingdom. Water Science and Technology, 15, 59-70. 

Younger, P. L. 2001. Mine water pollution in Scotland nature, extent and preventative strategies. Science of the Total Environment, 265, 309-326. 

Air or biological oxidation of pyrite leads to sulfate formation and dilute sulfuric acid in the mine drainage. This pollutes streams and the water supphes into which the mine water is drained. Means of controlling this problem are under study. 

Joseph A. Pratt. Letting the Grandchildren Do It Environmental Planning during the Ascent of Oil as a Major Energy Source. The Public Historian. 2 (Summer 1980) 28-61. Source for Bureau of Mines studies of automotive exhaust, water pollution, and sulfur-rich petroleum and environment to be monitored by voluntary self-regulation, not legislation. 

P.L. Younger, S.A. Banwart and R.S. Hedin Mine Water Hydrology, Pollution,... 

The sol-gel-entrapped microbial cells have shown excellent tolerance to different alcohols [99], The immobilized E. coli cells followed the Michaelis-Menten equation when quantified with the (3-glucosidase activity via the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl-(3-D-galactopyranosdie [142], The sol-gel matrices doped with gelatin prevented the cell lysis, which usually occurs during the initial gelation process [143], Microorganisms are now widely used in the biosorption of different pollutants and toxicants. Bacillus sphaericus JG-A12 isolated from uranium mining water has been entrapped in aqueous silica nanosol for the accumulation of copper and uranium [144], Premkumar et al. [145] immobilized recombinant luminous bacteria into TEOS sol-gel to study the effect of sol-gel conditions on the cell response (luminescence). The entrapped and free cells showed almost the same intensity of luminescence (little lower), but the entrapped cells were more stable than the free cells (4 weeks at 4°C). This kind of stable cell could be employed in biosensors in the near future. 

Furthermore, the extraction of non-conventional oil has other detrimental environmental impacts, such as water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Depending on the depth of the deposits, oil sands are either strip mined in open pits or heated so that the bitumen from which the non-conventional oil is extracted can flow to the surface (in-situ extraction). Both forms of oil-sands extraction require considerable amounts of energy (i.e., natural gas) and water, and lead to significant detrimental environmental impacts (Woynillowicz et al., 2005 see also Chapter 3). 

Chang, H.-W. (1999) Apparent solubilities of schwertmannite and ferrihydrite in natural stream waters polluted by mine drainage. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 63 3407—3416... 

A variety of human activities increase erosion and sedimentation rates. For example, soil typically erodes from cultivated land five to 10 times as fast as from noncultivated land. Construction sites lose soil 100 times as fast and mined land more than 500 times as fast as land that is undisturbed. Besides greatly increasing water pollution, this erosion accelerates the loss of valuable farmland. By some estimates, as much as 3.3 billion tons (3 billion metric tons) of topsoil is lost to such processes in the United States each year. Overall, the major anthropogenic sources of erosion (and, as a consequence, sedimentation) are certain types of agriculture (such as row cropping), livestock operations, logging, flooding from developed land, and construction projects. 

CCC 1995. Poisoned Legacy Water Pollution from Abandoned Mines. A Strategy for Action from the Coalfield Communities Campaign. Coalfield Communities Campaign, Barnsley, UK, 10 pp. 

Wood, S. C., Younger, P. L. Robins, N. S. 1999. Long-term changes in the quality of polluted mine-water discharges from abandoned underground coal workings in Scotland. Quarterly Journal of... 

Younger, P. L., Banwart, S. A. Hedin, R. S. 2002. Mine Water Hydrology, Pollution, Remediation. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, ISBN 1-4020-0137-1, 464 pp. 

A reaction of considerable importance in water pollution is the production of high acidity waters in coal mines. The acidity of these waters seems to be the result of oxidation of pyritic compounds. Although the oxidation mechanism is not understood, several investigators feel that microorganisms accelerate this reaction rate (25). 

Ohio State University Research Foundation. 1971. Acid mine drainage formation and abatement. Water Pollution Control Research Series DAST-42-14210 FPR-04/71. USEPA, Washington, DC, 83 pp. 

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act Dangerous Cargo Act Federal Coal Mining Safety Health Act Federal Food Drug Cosmetic Act Federal Insecticide, Fungicide Rodent Act Federal Water Pollution Control Act Hazardous Materials Transport Act Occupational Safety and Health Act Safe Drinking Water Act Toxic Substance Control Act... 

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