Impacts on Water Quality from Placement of Coal Combustion Waste in Pennsylvania Coal Mines
Impacts on Water Quality from Placement of Coal Combustion Waste in Pennsylvania Coal Mines

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 2009

ISBN-13:

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After four years of exhaustive study, the Task Force is releasing, Impacts of Water Quality from Placement of Coal Combustion Waste in Pennsylvania Coal Mines, a comprehensive examination of monitoring data from 15 coal surface coal mines in Pennsylvania that have received large volumes of coal ash. Despite persistent claims by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that there is no evidence that coal ash has ever contaminated water in a coal mine in Pennsylvania, this Study finds plenty of evidence from monitoring data that ash is contaminating groundwaters and surface waters in ten of the fifteen mines with levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, nickel, zinc, copper, and other pollutants exceeding drinking water standards and water quality standards often by many times. This contamination is posing a threat to humans and the environment and local organizations such as the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association are already using the data in the study to call for EPA intervention under Superfund to address contamination at the largest minefill studied by the Task Force. The study catalogs basic and serious deficiencies in the permits for these minefills and recommends enforceable safeguards in regulations to isolate the ash, monitor it properly and cleanup the pollution it is causing.

Managing Coal Combustion Residues in Mines
Managing Coal Combustion Residues in Mines

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2006-08-14

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0309100496

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Burning coal in electric utility plants produces, in addition to power, residues that contain constituents which may be harmful to the environment. The management of large volumes of coal combustion residues (CCRs) is a challenge for utilities, because they must either place the CCRs in landfills, surface impoundments, or mines, or find alternative uses for the material. This study focuses on the placement of CCRs in active and abandoned coal mines. The committee believes that placement of CCRs in mines as part of the reclamation process may be a viable option for the disposal of this material as long as the placement is properly planned and carried out in a manner that avoids significant adverse environmental and health impacts. This report discusses a variety of steps that are involved in planning and managing the use of CCRs as minefills, including an integrated process of CCR characterization and site characterization, management and engineering design of placement activities, and design and implementation of monitoring to reduce the risk of contamination moving from the mine site to the ambient environment. Enforceable federal standards are needed for the disposal of CCRs in minefills to ensure that states have adequate, explicit authority and that they implement minimum safeguards.

Groundwater Research and Issues
Groundwater Research and Issues

Author: William B. Porter

Publisher: Nova Publishers

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 9781604562309

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Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become fully saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps, streams and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called groundwater hydrology. Typically groundwater is thought of as liquid water flowing through shallow aquifers, but technically it can also include soil moisture, permafrost (frozen soil), immobile water in very low permeability bedrock, and deep geothermal or oil formation water. Groundwater is hypothesised to provide lubrication which can possibly aid faults to move. This book presents important research in the field.