Coal pit lakes in abandoned mining areas in León (NW Spain): characteristics and geoecological significance

Abstract Mining activity introduces severe changes in landscapes and, subsequently, in land uses. One of the most singular changes is the existence of pit lakes, which occur in active and, more frequently, abandoned mines. Pit lakes are produced by water table interception when open-pit mines deepen. Their characteristics are highly variable, depending on the type of mine, the environment or the climate. In León province there is a long tradition of coal mining that dates back to the 19th century, and hundreds of open pits from the 1970s to 2018 have been opened, producing permanent landscape changes. This work analyses the main parameters, including morphological measurements, depth and pH values obtained from aerial photos and field work, of 76 coal pit lakes more than 30 m in length. The vast majority of these pit lakes were unknown until now and were not included in inventories or maps. The data obtained provide baseline knowledge that will allow, in the future, potential uses (storage of water for various uses, recreational use, wildlife habitat, and geological heritage sites) for these pit lakes and establish their importance as a new geoecological environment.

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Characterization of Laciana Valley District mine water as geothermal resource

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/20185101003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. 01003

Author(s):

Alejandro Matas ◽

Francisco García-Carro ◽

Jorge Loredo

Keyword(s):

Mine Water ◽

District Heating ◽

Heating System ◽

Field Work ◽

Abandoned Mines ◽

Underground Mines ◽

Open Pit ◽

Geothermal Resource ◽

Northern Spain ◽

District Heating System

Laciana Valley District is a coal mining region located in northern Spain. This region counts with several mining facilities, among them: eight underground mines (six mountain mines and two mine shafts) and three open pit mines. Nowadays, all the mining facilities have been closed down and are flooded. The water found inside them could be used as a geothermal resource due to its thermal properties and the proximity to population. The aim of the study is to analyze the water of the facilities located in Laciana Valley and determine its potential to be used as a geothermal resource for a district heating system. In order to achieve this goal an extensive field work has been performed, nine different mine water discharges have been chosen and several water characteristics have been selected for analysis. The parameters measured have been pH, conductivity, hardness, temperature, turbidity and alkalinity. The results have been evaluated in order to determine the fluctuations of the physico-chemical parameters throughout a hydrological year and the mining facilities have been compared between each other regarding their mine water quality. The analysis of all the information gathered in the study shows a noteworthy thermal potential in the water of the abandoned mines of the region.

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Characterization of Laciana Valley District mine water as geothermal resource

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3scconf/20185101003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. 01003

Author(s):

Alejandro Matas ◽

Francisco García-Carro ◽

Jorge Loredo

Keyword(s):

Mine Water ◽

District Heating ◽

Heating System ◽

Field Work ◽

Abandoned Mines ◽

Underground Mines ◽

Open Pit ◽

Geothermal Resource ◽

Northern Spain ◽

District Heating System

Laciana Valley District is a coal mining region located in northern Spain. This region counts with several mining facilities, among them: eight underground mines (six mountain mines and two mine shafts) and three open pit mines. Nowadays, all the mining facilities have been closed down and are flooded. The water found inside them could be used as a geothermal resource due to its thermal properties and the proximity to population. The aim of the study is to analyze the water of the facilities located in Laciana Valley and determine its potential to be used as a geothermal resource for a district heating system. In order to achieve this goal an extensive field work has been performed, nine different mine water discharges have been chosen and several water characteristics have been selected for analysis. The parameters measured have been pH, conductivity, hardness, temperature, turbidity and alkalinity. The results have been evaluated in order to determine the fluctuations of the physico-chemical parameters throughout a hydrological year and the mining facilities have been compared between each other regarding their mine water quality. The analysis of all the information gathered in the study shows a noteworthy thermal potential in the water of the abandoned mines of the region.

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Anthropic Radioactive Pollution in Romania

International conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION ◽

10.2478/kbo-2019-0136 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 185-189

Author(s):

Ioan Zaharie ◽

Mircea Goloşie

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Radioactive Waste ◽

Food Contamination ◽

Abandoned Mines ◽

Contaminated Sites ◽

Radioactive Pollution ◽

Radioactive Materials ◽

Mining Areas ◽

Industrial Buildings ◽

Chemical Wastes

Abstract The paper presents some conclusions regarding the identification, processing and monitoring of sites contaminated with heavy and radioactive metals. The following categories of sites have been researched: abandoned mining areas, industrial perimeters for the processing of alloys containing radioactive metals, chemical wastes from the chemical fertilizer industry, railways and run- ways that serve to locate radioactive ores, military sites with forgotten radioactive waste, abandoned mines in which chemical and radioactive materials have been deposited, civil and industrial buildings where radioactive materials were used, tourist resorts affected by anthropic and entropic pollution, cases of radioactive floods and heavy metals from food, contamination of external geographic causes. The research includes the results related to the identification, processing and monitoring of the data of more than 350 contaminated sites.

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Are There Better Disposal Methods?

The Waste Crisis ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195128987.003.0011 ◽

2000 ◽

Author(s):

Hans Tammemagi

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Waste Disposal ◽

Surface Expression ◽

Abandoned Mines ◽

Underground Mines ◽

Open Pit ◽

Near Surface ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Future Value ◽

Deep Underground

Most of the solid waste generated by society ultimately winds up in near-surface landfills. Let us put our thinking caps firmly on, place our prejudices aside, and explore what other methods might be used to dispose of waste. We should seek, in particular, the approaches that best fulfill the three basic principles described in chapter 2. That is, we should strive to find disposal methods that are in accord with sustainable development. Existing and abandoned pits, quarries, and mines are attractive for waste disposal because a hole to contain the wastes has already been excavated. Such abandoned areas, when left unreclaimed, cannot be used for agriculture or other beneficial uses. Thus, they generally do not have significant market value and can often be obtained relatively cheaply. For these reasons, pits and quarries have been extensively used for landfills. Operating and abandoned mines, on which this section focuses, are somewhat similar to pits and quarries, though usually larger. Abandoned mines hold promise as disposal facilities because they are resource areas that have been depleted and thus have little future value. There are two basic types of mine: the open pit mine, which is effectively a large pit or hole in the ground; and the underground mine, where the mined-out openings are deep underground and there is no surface expression except for the shafts used to gain subsurface access. Because underground mines occupy minimal surface land, their use for waste disposal would be in accordance with the sustainable development principles that were advocated in chapter 2. Several European countries, with higher population densities and much smaller land mass than in North America, have long used abandoned underground mines to dispose of their rubbish. The major advantage of placing wastes deep in underground mines is that it is inherently safer than placing the wastes in a surface facility. The amount of groundwater and its flow rate decrease with depth; this fact, combined with the long transport paths back to the biosphere, minimizes the possibility that contaminants will be carried by groundwater to the surface, where they could damage the environment. The waste is contained deeper and more securely.

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Assessing the Existing Vegetation Around Abandoned Mining Areas With Potentially Toxic Heavy Metals

Practice, Progress, and Proficiency in Sustainability - Management and Conservation of Mediterranean Environments ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7391-4.ch002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 14-31

Author(s):

José Manuel Naranjo Gómez ◽

José Cabezas Fernández ◽

Rui Alexandre Castanho ◽

Carlos José Pinto Gomes

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Geographic Information Systems ◽

Geographic Information ◽

Geospatial Analysis ◽

Abandoned Mines ◽

Toxic Heavy Metals ◽

Mining Areas ◽

Geospatial Database ◽

Thematic Cartography ◽

Physical Consequences

In abandoned mining areas, heavy metals may exist. Those heavy metals can cause physical consequences and death. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the environmental diagnosis of vegetation potentially affected by the presence of very toxic heavy metals in abandoned mining areas in Extremadura was conducted. Initially, graphic and alphanumeric information was obtained from numerous sources, and the geospatial database generated was analyzed, allowing the location of abandoned mines. Subsequently, the mines were classified according to the degree of toxicity of the heavy metals that had been exploited. Then, taking into account the mines whose heavy metals were considered very toxic, a geospatial analysis was performed using concentric buffers at 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 60 kilometres. The results obtained made it possible to obtain thematic cartography representative of the areas potentially affected. The proportion of vegetation potentially affected, has been classified according to the existing vegetation series and climatic belts.

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Dust Dispersion and Its Effect on Vegetation Spectra at Canopy and Pixel Scales in an Open-Pit Mining Area

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12223759 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (22) ◽

pp. 3759

Author(s):

Baodong Ma ◽

Xuexin Li ◽

Ziwei Jiang ◽

Ruiliang Pu ◽

Aiman Liang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Mining Area ◽

Open Pit ◽

Open Pit Mining ◽

Vegetation Canopy ◽

Dust Pollution ◽

Mining Areas ◽

Dust Effect ◽

Dust Dispersion ◽

Pixel Scale

Dust pollution is severe in some mining areas in China due to rapid industrial development. Dust deposited on the vegetation canopy may change its spectra. However, a relationship between canopy spectra and dust amount has not been quantitatively studied, and a pixel-scale condition for remote sensing application has not been considered yet. In this study, the dust dispersion characteristics in an iron mining area were investigated using the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory model (AERMOD). Further, based on the three-dimensional discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) model, the spectral characteristics of vegetation canopy under the dusty condition were simulated, and the influence of dustfall on vegetation canopy spectra was studied. Finally, the dust effect on vegetation spectra at the canopy scale was extended to a pixel scale, and the response of dust effect on vegetation spectra at the pixel scale was determined under different fractional vegetation covers (FVCs). The experimental results show that the dust pollution along a haul road was more severe and extensive than that in a stope. Taking dust dispersion along the road as an example, the variation of vegetation canopy spectra increased with the height of dust deposited on the vegetation canopy. At the pixel scale, a lower vegetation FVC would weaken the influence of dust on the spectra. The results derived from simulation spectral data were tested using satellite remote sensing images. The tested result indicates that the influence of dust retention on the pixel spectra with different FVCs was consistent with that created with the simulated data. The finding could be beneficial for those making decisions on monitoring vegetation under dusty conditions and reducing dust pollution in mining areas using remote sensing technology.

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Estimating Release of Trace Elements from an Area with Historical Open Pit Mining of Alum Shale Using Mass Transport and Element/Sulfate Ratios Calculations

Environments ◽

10.3390/environments7110100 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 100

Author(s):

Kristina Åhlgren ◽

Viktor Sjöberg ◽

Mattias Bäckström

Keyword(s):

Mass Transport ◽

Open Pit ◽

Open Pit Mining ◽

Water Runoff ◽

Metal Release ◽

Alum Shale ◽

Surrounding Environment ◽

Western Lake ◽

Pit Lakes ◽

Waste Deposit

Alum shale was mined for oil and uranium production in Kvarntorp, Sweden, 1942–1966. Remnants such as pit lakes, exposed shale and a 100-meter-high waste deposit with a hot interior affect the surrounding environment, with elevated concentrations of, e.g., Mo, Ni and U in the recipient. Today most pit lakes are circumneutral while one of the lakes is still acidic. All pit lakes show signs of sulfide weathering with elevated sulfate concentrations. Mass transport calculations show that for elements such as uranium and molybdenum the western lake system (lake Söderhavet in particular) contributes the largest part. For sulfate, the two western lakes contribute with a quarter each, the eastern lake Norrtorpssjön about a third and a serpentine pond system receiving water from the waste deposit contributes around 17%. Except for a few elements (e.g., nickel 35%), the Serpentine system (including the waste deposit area) is not a very pronounced point source for metal release compared to the pit lakes. Estimates about future water runoff when the deposit has cooled down suggest only a slight increase in downstream water flow. There could possibly be first flush effects when previous hot areas have been reached by water.

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