Abstract
Open-pit mines can cause environmental changes, such as alterations of landscape structure, hydrology, air quality, and river sediments; they can also generate cones of depression. We propose a new method for surveys of mine waters using the example of an open-pit mine in central Poland. This study examines the correlations between bioluminescence and the color of brown coal mine waters and tests whether values of the three-color coordinate system reflected the physicochemical quality of mine waters measured in real-time and in the field. Our results show that alkalinity, pH reaction, and conductivity are higher in surface drainage, while values of trophic parameters (soluble reactive phosphates, total phosphorus, nitrates) are greater in samples representing subsurface drainage. Correlation analysis of bioluminescence with mine water quality parameters showed that only water color had a strong association with bioluminescence. This correlation is stronger for surface drainage, than for mine waters from subsurface drainage. Direct measurement of bioluminescence, resulting from adenosine 5`-triphosphate (ATP) using a luminometer, is a fast and reliable method for evaluation of the characteristics of mine waters in real-time.
Highlights
Brown coal is an important natural resource for electric power generation in several countries, e.g., Germany, Turkey, China, Poland, Russian Federation, Greece, and others.The top brown coal producers in the European Union are Germany, followed by Poland [1].In all those countries, the impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems can be observed near operating and closed open-pit mines
We investigated the method for evaluating overall metabolic activity in mine water by measuring the amount of adenosine 5‘-triphosphate (ATP) using bioluminescence
Differences between studied mine waters were found according to all physicochemical parameters
Summary
Brown coal is an important natural resource for electric power generation in several countries, e.g., Germany, Turkey, China, Poland, Russian Federation, Greece, and others.The top brown coal producers in the European Union are Germany, followed by Poland [1].In all those countries, the impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems can be observed near operating and closed open-pit mines. Amongst several environmental effects of open-cast mines in the presence of cone of depression in the surrounding area, which affect groundwater table, and the availability of surface waters, due to drying out of small lakes, ponds, and even watercourses. This phenomenon is an unavoidable consequence of the drainage of brown coal deposits [2,3]. Waters from deep-seated drainage had good quality in terms of transparency, salinity, and presence of heavy metals Another type, from surface drainage, had poorer quality, and it was related to the presence of ions and especially to turbidity [5]
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