Justification of decisions regarding the water supply to the population in the mining regions in the conditions of local resources insufficiency

Abstract

The issue of the possibility of providing the population with water through the available resources of mine/quarry water formed during the extraction of minerals is considered. The authors show that there is an insufficient level of local water resources in Ukraine. The situation is especially negative in industrialized regions with high water consumption. However, in these regions, the mining industry is widely developed, and their activity is accompanied by a different level of mine workings watering. Today, mine/quarry waters are pumped out and, after sedimentation, discharged into the hydrographic network, polluting it. It is shown that the most rational is to collect, purify and use mine water. The methods of mathematical statistics were used in this work: correlation-regression and dispersion analyses, which were used to analyze data from 10 mines in the city of Kryvyi Rih over a five-year period. The annual level of water inflows, the depth of deposit development, volumes of ore extraction, areas of license areas, geological characteristics of ore deposits, etc. were analyzed. A noticeable correlation was established only between the levels of water inflows and the depth of deposit development and volumes of ore extraction. Therefore, further the multifactorial analysis of these factors was performed. During the preliminary analysis, it was established that there is a powerful dyke between the Frunze and Pokrovska mines, and the mines located on different sides of this dyke often differ in terms of water inflows. Because of this, the northern and southern groups of mines were chosen, the data for which were processed separately. The relationship between water inflows, the depth of deposit development and production volumes was analyzed according to linear and various non-linear dependencies. The exponential dependence of water inflows on the depth of deposit development and the logarithmic dependence on the volumes of extraction show the highest correlation coefficient (0.83–0.86). According to the dependencies given in the article, it is recommended to determine forecasting water inflows for the design of mine water treatment systems for drinking water supply. In the article, a general technological scheme with separate collection, sedimentation and treatment of mine waters is proposed. For the conditions of Kryvyi Rih, this will cover almost half of the population's water consumption. Keywords: water resources, mine waters, discharge, regularities, water supply, treatment.