Assessment of Groundwater Vulnerability to Pollution in the Region of Sublevel Mine Waste Dump Using Standard Methods

Parametric assessment of groundwater vulnerability to pollution within an open pit reclaimed by gangue

“…For the areas of sub-level waste collection in opencast, the commonly known standard methods of assessing the groundwater vulnerability to pollution for conservative substances have not been used so far. This is due to the fact that the wastes deposited in the pit are at least partially under the influence of groundwater, which is in contradiction with the main assumption of the ranking methods on the location of the pollutant emitter on the surface (Niedbalska et al 2016). Such a phenomenon may occur both in the conditions of complete liquidation of the open pit and in the case of its partial reclamation simultaneously with the exploitation of the deposit, when the mine drainage system is still maintained (Johnson and Carroll 2007).…”

“…At the considered training ground, such a situation was forced by a functioning mine drainage system, and this condition is met on the entire surface of the reclaimed open-pit excavation. The analyses carried out so far using the classic DRASTIC method (Niedbalska et al 2016) and the first attempts at its modification (Niedbalska et al 2017) enabled the final selection of optimal factors shaping the sensitivity of groundwater to the impact of anthropogenic pollution source. Finally, six main factors were selected and assigned appropriate weights due to the importance of their impact on groundwater vulnerability (2-the least importance, 6-the most important).…”

“…To indicate the scale of the impact of materials used in reclamation on the groundwater environment, 5 classes were separated, in accordance with the division presented in Table 2. According to the classical division used in the DRASTIC method (Niedbalska et al 2016), underground waters throughout the reclaimed open-pit area are characterized by high vulnerability. The proposed five-grade classification of waters with high vulnerability to pollution will therefore allow the indication of those areas that first require special care and intensive corrective and preventive actions.…”