Treatment of groundwater using phytoremediation technique at Kolar Gold Fields, India

Abstract

Underground gold mining at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), Karnataka, was carried out for more than a century at greater depths which disturbed the groundwater aquifers. Leaching from huge amount of mill tailings dumps can contaminate groundwater. As many researchers have used plant species like water hyacinth, water lettuce and vetiver grass for the treatment of water and wastewater, therefore, attempts were made to treat the groundwater of KGF using these species. For this, the plant species were grown in synthetic solution and also by adding nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) in the solution. The growth parameters of species like number of leaves, plant weight, length of principal root and number of roots were studied. Removal efficiency of these species was also computed for different water quality parameters. The study revealed that water hyacinth had higher contaminant reduction capability than water lettuce and vetiver grass.