Environmental geochemistry and quality assessment of mine water of Jharia coalfield, India

Abstract

A long mining history and unscientific exploitation of Jharia coalfield caused many environmental problems including water resource depletion and contamination. A geochemical study of mine water in the Jharia coalfield has been undertaken to assess its quality and suitability for domestic, industrial and irrigation uses. For this purpose, 92 mine water samples collected from different mining areas of Jharia coalfield were analysed for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), major cations (Ca 2? , Mg 2? , Na ? , K ? ), anions (F -, Cl -, HCO 3 -, SO 4 2-, NO 3 -), dissolved silica (H 4 SiO 4 ) and trace metals. The pH of the analysed mine water samples varied from 6.2 to 8.6, indicating mildly acidic to alkaline nature. Concentration of TDS varied from 437 to 1,593 mg L -1 and spatial differences in TDS values reflect the variation in lithology, surface activities and hydrological regime prevailing in the region. SO 4 2-and HCO 3 -are dominant in the anion and Mg 2? and Ca 2? in the cation chemistry of mine water. High concentrations of SO 4 2-in the mine water of the area zare attributed to the oxidative weathering of pyrites. Ca-Mg-SO 4 and Ca-Mg-HCO 3 are the dominant hydrochemical facies. The drinking water quality assessment indicates that number of mine water samples have high TDS, total hardness and SO 4 2-concentrations and needs treatment before its utilization. Concentrations of some trace metals (Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb) were also found to be above the desirable levels recommended for drinking water. The mine water is good to permissible quality and suitable for irrigation in most cases. However, higher salinity, residual sodium carbonate and Mg-ratio restrict its suitability for irrigation at some sites.

Evaluation of Graphical and Multivariate Statistical Methods for Classification and Evaluation of Groundwater in Alathur Block, Perambalur District, India

“…The knowledge of hydrochemistry is essential to determine the origin of chemical composition of groundwater (Zaporozec, 1972). The hydrogeochemical evaluation study is becoming very important to determine the processes involved in the chemical evolution of groundwater (Andrade and Stigter, 2011;Singh et al, 2012a). People also mostly depend upon the groundwater as the water resource for all the activities like drinking, agriculture and domestic use.…”

Recovery of Bio-Oil from Industrial Food Waste by Liquefied Dimethyl Ether for Biodiesel Production

“…Furthermore, considering the expected lack of water supply in the future [34], the removed water may then become a potential resource for agricultural utilization. In fact, agricultural irrigation using such industrial waste water had been reported elsewhere [35]. …”

Acid drainage potential from coal mine wastes: environmental assessment through static and kinetic tests

“…The RCF also contains large reserves of iron ore occurring chiefly as nodules along with good quality fire clay in the Barakar stage of RCF (Sikdari et al 2004). The high demand for coal from this area has ensued in intensive mining activities and expansion of the lease hold areas, along with the piling up of vast areas of overburden material and tailings, thus resulted in significant long-term environment hazards in the form of acid mine drainage and contamination of local water resources with toxic trace metals (Singh and Singh 2010;Banerjee 2011;Singh et al 2012). …”