How does mine drainage occur?
Mine drainage is formed when pyrite (an iron sulfide) is exposed and reacts with air and water to form sulfuric acid and dissolved iron. Some or all of this iron can precipitate to form the red, orange, or yellow sediments in the bottom of streams containing mine drainage. The acid runoff further dissolves heavy metals such as copper, lead, and mercury into groundwater or surface water. The rate and degree by which acid-mine drainage proceeds can be increased by the action of certain bacteria.
Problems associated with mine drainage include contaminated drinking water, disrupted growth and reproduction of aquatic plants and animals, and the corroding effects of the acid on parts of infrastructures such as bridges.
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Acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage (AMD) consists of metal-laden solutions produced by the oxidative dissolution of iron sulfide minerals exposed to air, moisture, and acidophilic microbes during the mining of coal and metal deposits. The pH of AMD is usually in the range of 2–6, but mine-impacted waters at circumneutral pH (5–8) are also common. Mine drainage...
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Historical mining has left complex problems in catchments throughout the world. Land managers are faced with making cost-effective plans to remediate mine influences. Remediation plans are facilitated by spatial mass-loading profiles that indicate the locations of metal mass-loading, seasonal changes, and the extent of biogeochemical processes....
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Microbial and spectral reflectance techniques to distinguish neutral and acidic drainage
Acid drainage from abandoned coal mines is affecting thousands of miles of rivers in the eastern United States. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are finding that neutral drainage is sometimes being mistaken for acidic drainage because both involve the formation of iron oxide-rich materials. USGS scientists are adapting microbial...
Robbins, Eleanora I. Acute toxicity of an acid mine drainage mixing zone to juvenile bluegill and largemouth bass
The toxicity of an acid mixing zone produced at the confluence of a stream that was contaminated by acid mine drainage (AMD) and a pH-neutral stream was investigated in toxicity tests with juvenile bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides. Fish mortalities in instream cages located in the mixing zone, below the mixing...
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Ross basin, upper Cement Creek in Watershed above North Fork Cement Creek
Western view toward the Red Mountains near Silverton, Colorado, taken just upstream from the North Fork Cement Creek drainage in 2006. The photo illustrates acidic drainage (red drainage at right) and less acidic drainage (white drainage at left of photo) that originates from altered rocks and mines in the watershed. Black rocks in foreground are mine waste clasts coated
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PubTalk 3/2015 — The Environmental Legacy of California's Gold Rush
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Cement Creek, Colorado, Acid Mine Drainage Investigations Site
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Sampling acid mine drainage residuals in Elk County, Pennsylvania. The USGS has pioneered a new use for these residuals that are currently a disposal challenge, using them to filter phosphorus from agricultural and municipal wastewaters.
Acid Mine Drainage Discharge Appalachian Stream
An acid mine drainage discharge forms a plume in a stream in the Appalachian region.
The world's most acidic water is found in a mine in California
The most acidic waters ever measured are percolating through an underground mine at Iron Mountain, near the northern California town of Redding. Hot acid solutions, more concentrated than battery acid, are dripping from colorful mineral stalactites in the abandoned copper and zinc mine at Iron Mountain, in northern California. The pH of the drip water was -0.7. The beaker
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Lead Queen mine tunnel precipitate
Orange, iron-rich precipitate (ochre) from outflow of Lead Queen mine tunnel, after late September 2014 monsoon storm. Photo by Glen E. "Gooch" Goodwin, Photographer - used with permission.