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Quantifying the importance of diffuse minewater pollution in a historically heavily coal mined catchment

Lookup NU author(s): Dr William Mayes, Emma Gozzard, Dr Hugh Potter, Professor Adam Jarvis

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Abstract

There has been considerable progress in developing treatment systems for point sources of minewater pollution in recent years; however, there remains a knowledge gap in the characterisation and remediation of diffuse minewater sources. Data are presented from the River Gaunless catchment, a historically heavily coal mined catchment in the northeast of England. Instream iron (Fe) loadings were monitored alongside loadings arising from point minewater discharges over a 12-month period to assess the dynamic importance of diffuse sources of minewater pollution. In low flow, diffuse sources account for around 50% of instream loading, a proportion which increases to 98% in high flow conditions. The low flow sources appear to be dominated by direct discharge of contaminated groundwater to surface waters in lower reaches of the catchment. In high flow, resuspended Fe-rich sediments, which are both naturally occurring and derived from historic mining, become the dominant diffuse source of Fe in the water column. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Mayes WM, Gozzard E, Potter HAB, Jarvis AP

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Environmental Pollution

Year: 2008

Volume: 151

Issue: 1

Pages: 165-175

Print publication date: 01/01/2008

ISSN (print): 0269-7491

ISSN (electronic): 1873-6424

Publisher: Pergamon

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2007.02.008

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2007.02.008

PubMed id: 17400351

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