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Introduction
After working with the US Bureau of Mines in the 1990s, I have worked with a group that has designed 70 installed passive treatment systems. We have developed and advanced treatment technologies including anoxic limestone drains, vertical flow ponds, and oxic limestone beds. Current interests include drainable limestone beds, passive treatment of Mn, the production of marketable iron products from treatment systems, and the role of CO2 in mine water treatment.
Skills and Expertise
Education
June 1981 - August 1986
Publications
Publications (72)
The Marchand passive treatment system was constructed in 2006 for a 6,000L/min discharge from an abandoned underground bituminous
coal mine located in western Pennsylvania, USA. The system consists of six serially connected ponds followed by a large constructed
wetland. Treatment performance was monitored between December 2006 and 2007. The system...
Approximately 30 % of the Earth's oceans support low rates of primary production because of low Fe concentrations. The fertilization of these waters with Fe has been proposed as a tool for creating phytoplankton blooms, increasing carbon fixation, and sequestering carbon in deep ocean waters. This paper reviews the status of the ocean iron fertiliz...
AMD from the Anna S coal mine in Pennsylvania (USA) has been treated successfully since 2004 in the Anna and Hunters Drift (HD) passive systems. The systems, which consist of vertical flow ponds and constructed wetlands, are the largest and most costly mine water treatment project installed by a non-profit group in the USA to date. 15 years of moni...
Rare earth elements (REE) are critically important in clean energy technologies, but their mining and refining is energy intensive and generates significant quantities of environmentally harmful waste. The treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD), which is both a global environmental problem and a potential source of these elements, preconcentrates RE...
Elevated concentrations of CO2 are common in discharges from abandoned coal mines. The CO2 is a problem in lime treatment systems because of its tendency to react with lime and prepiciate as calcite. In passive systems elevated CO2 can maintains pH values between 5.5 and 6.5, which is low enough to substantially slow Fe and Mn oxidation reations. T...
In the U.S., the state of Pennsylvania has proposed lowering its Mn criterion from 1.0 to 0.3 mg/L. An investigation of the feasibility of meeting this standard with passive treatment was conducted. Existing data from 19 full-scale oxic limestone beds were compiled from literature reports to determine current Mn removal effectiveness and rates. The...
One strategy to limiting eutrophication in waterways is to reduce the concentration of water‐extractable P (WEP) in land‐applied manure. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using mine drainage residuals (MDR), waste solids produced in large quantities from coal mine drainage treatment, to reduce WEP in dairy manure. Twenty MDRs from t...
Rare earth elements (REE; lanthanides and Y) are essential for the development of clean energy technologies. Global demand for REE is expected to increase sharply in the coming decades, especially for certain energy-critical REE (e.g., Y and Nd), spurring investigations into novel sources of REEs. Polluted mine drainage from eastern U.S. coalfields...
Drainages from abandoned coal mines in the Appalachian Basin represent a potential source of rare earth elements and yttrium (REY), many of which are considered to be critical resources due to their use in electronics and batteries. We report REY data from coal mine drainage (CMD) sites and precipitates from CMD treatment systems throughout Pennsyl...
Passive technologies are generally the preferred post-closure treatment technology because of the potential for lower long-term costs than conventional chemical technologies. Passive systems produce solids and their management is often the primary long-term treatment liability. If the solids have valuable characteristics, their recovery and sale ca...
Three different dairy manure wastewater effluent samples were amended with mine drainage residuals (MDR) in order to evaluate the suitability of MDR for sequestration of phosphorus (P). Geochemical modeling of the manure wastewater compositions indicated that partially soluble P-bearing minerals including hydroxyapatite, octacalcium phosphate and v...
PanAust Limited (PanAust), through its Laos-registered subsidiary Phu Bia Mining (PBM), owns and operates the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Operation in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (Laos). The operation includes a flooded tailings storage facility that discharges through two toe drains installed in the facility's earthen dam. The toe drain discharge...
Iron oxides recovered from abandoned coal mine drainage (AMD) sites (Lowber, Scrubgrass, and Horner) as a soil amendment were investigated in this laboratory study for their effectiveness in the stabilization of cadmium, copper, and zinc in two metal-contaminated soils. The adsorption experimental results demonstrated that all three AMD iron oxides...
The Marchand water treatment system was constructed in Pennsylvania in 2006 to treat a 7 m 3 /min flow of alkaline coal mine drainage containing 72 mg/L Fe 2+. The passive system removes Fe through a natural oxidation/hydrolysis/settling process that does not require any energy or chemical inputs. Over the last six years the system has consistently...
Unplugged abandoned oil and gas wells in the Appalachian region can serve as conduits for the movement of waters impacted by fossil fuel extraction. Strontium isotope and geochemical analysis indicate that artesian discharges of water with high total dissolved solids (TDS) from a series of gas wells in western Pennsylvania result from the infiltrat...
Introduction The treatment of mine water containing elevated ferrous iron (Fe²⁺) requires oxidation of Fe²⁺ to Fe³⁺ and settling of the ferric oxyhy-droxide solids. In passive systems the oxidation is usually considered the rate-limiting step (Dempsey et al. 2001). The kinetics of the oxidation are strongly aected by temperature. In climates where...
The minerals and coal that represent economically valued ores are largely chemically stable under in situ geological conditions. When excavated and exposed to the atmosphere, however, these solid phases become chemically unstable.
Coal and hydrocarbons can be oxidized through combustion to gain useful energy. The sulfide minerals associated with me...
The Anna S coal mine complex in Tioga County, PA, produces drainage with a pH of 2.8–3.6 containing 3–36mg/L Al, 1–36mg/L
Fe, and 6–9mg/L Mn. In 2003, the Babb Creek Watershed Association installed two systems that passively treat three discharges
from the mine complex. Both systems contain four parallel vertical flow ponds followed by aerobic wetl...
Acid mine drainage with ph 3.0 and containing 27 mg/L Al, 10 mg/L Fe, and 15 mg/L Mn was treated experimentally for 2+ years with high calcite limestone aggregate in 23 m³ boxes equipped with programmable flushing devices. A variety of flow regimes and flushing modes were tested. The best sustainable treatment occurred when AMd flowed vertically do...
Chapman, E. C., Capo. R. C., Stewart, B. W. Dept. of Geology & Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15260 Hedin, R. S. and Weaver, T. R., Hedin Environmental, 195 Castle Shannon Blvd., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15228 In western Pennsylvania, numerous abandoned oil and gas wells discharge contaminated water to the s...
The Marchand passive treatment system was constructed in 2006 for a 6,000 L/min (1,650 gpm) discharge from an abandoned underground bituminous coal mine located in western Pennsylvania, USA. The system consists of six serially-connected ponds followed by a large constructed wetland. Treatment performance was monitored between December 2006 and Dece...
The net acidity of a water sample can be measured directly by titration with a standardized base solution or calculated from
the measured concentrations of the acidic and basic components. For coal mine drainage, the acidic components are primarily
accounted for by free protons and dissolved Fe2+, Fe3+, Al3+, and Mn2+. The base component is primari...
Iron is the most common metal contaminant of coal mine drainage. Its treatment creates a metal-rich sludge whose management accounts for a substantial portion of the total treatment costs. For decades, researchers have searched unsuccessfully for cost-mitigating uses for mine drainage sludge. This paper describes our progress in the development of...
In northwestern Pennsylvania (USA), numerous abandoned natural gas wells are producing artesian flows of Fe-contaminated water. The origin of the polluted water has been generally assumed to be brines from the gas-producing sands. We sampled 20 artesian discharges where iron staining was conspicuous. The waters were not brines, but were more charac...
Numerous abandoned gas wells drilled during the late 1800's through the mid 1900's in the Clarion River watershed are acting as conduits for the artesian flow of iron-polluted waters to the surface. These shallow wells are located near surface mines, which were mined during the 1940's through the 1970's and had little if any surface reclamation. Th...
A common goal of passive mine drainage treatment is the removal metals such as iron and aluminum from contaminated water. However, these metals form solid particles that can clog pipes and limestone aggregate, increasing operational costs and decreasing treatment system longevity. To combat this problem, a wide variety of flushing systems have been...
Iron oxide sludge was recovered from a channel at an abandoned coal mine, processed, and used as a raw material in pigment production. The site is a former coal mining and processing facility in southwestern PA. Over the last 60 years, a channel carrying the mine discharge (1500-1800 gpm, pH 6.3, Fe 73 mg/L, alkalinity 313 mg/L as CaCO3) had filled...
As contaminated mine waters flow into and through receiving systems (streams, rivers, wetlands and lakes), their toxic characteristics commonly decrease. Many studies (e.g. Tuttle et al., 1969, Wieder and Lang 1982; Huntsman 1978; Stark et al., 1990; Herlihy and Mills 1985) have shown that this amelioration in quality occurs as a result of:
natural...
Before about 1980 (e.g. Barton, 1978), the only proven technologies for mine water treatment were those which we now term
“active treatment”. Active treatment is conventional waste water engineering applied to mine waters. The following formal
definition of active treatment emphasizes the ways in which it differs from passive treatment (see Chapter...
It is difficult to over-state the importance of mining to the development and sustenance of modern society (Shepherd, 1993).
The appropriation of natural earth resources for human use is apparently instinctive, and operates at every level of social
organisation: from the hunter-gatherer constructing a temporary shelter with loose boulders, to an in...
Hydrology is a relatively young science, which has developed gradually out of the hydraulic expedients which underpin much of civil engineering practice. Indeed, the emergence of truly scientific hydrology is such a recent development that major textbooks and learned journals have until recently devoted many pages to discussing its scientific crede...
Nowhere is the conflict between economic progress and environmental quality more apparent than in the mineral extraction industries. The latter half of the 20th century saw major advances in the reclamation technologies. However, mine water pollution problems have not been addressed. In many cases, polluted mine water long outlives the life of the...
The rates of chemical oxidation and gas transfer were determined for two passive abiotic systems for the treatment of mine drainage. One system (HB) is a series of ponds whose discharge was net acidic. The second treatment system (CK) has shallow channels and net alkaline discharge. The O 2 mass transfer coefficient was 2 cm h -1 for HB Pond #2 and...
The geochemical evolution of deep coal mine discharges is a function of basin geometry, overburden mineralogy and basin hydrology. Numerous large flow (> 2,000 L min -1 ), historically acidic, deep mine discharges in southwestern Pennsylvania are now alkaline (up to 450 ppm as CaCO3), with circumneutral pH and high dissolved iron concentrations. In...
Numerous large flow (> 2,000 l/min), historically (pre-1973) acidic, abandoned underground deep mine discharges in southwestern Pennsylvania are now alkaline in character, with circumneutral pH. Recently measured flow rates are consistent with those measured 25--30 years ago; thus the change in chemistry is not simply due to dilution by increased f...
As contaminated mine drainage flows into receiving streams, rivers, and lakes, its toxic characteristics decrease naturally as a result of chemical and biological reactions and by dilution with uncontaminated water. During the last decade, the possibility that these processes might be used to treat mine water passively has developed from an experim...
Remining is the surface mining of previously-mined and abandoned surface and underground mines to obtain remaining coal reserves. Remining operations create jobs in the coal industry, produce coal from previously-disturbed areas, and improve aesthetics by backfilling and revegetating areas according to current reclamation standards. Remining operat...
Anoxic limestone drains (ALDs) are a cost-effective technique for adding alkalinity to acid mine drainage. However, the applicability of an ALD is limited to a rather narrow range of mine drainage chemical conditions due to concerns about the armoring of limestone with ferric hydroxide, the plugging of flow paths with aluminum hydroxide, and the li...
The water treatment performances of two anoxic limestone drains (ALDs) were evaluated. Anoxic limestone drains are buried beds limestone that are intended to add bicarbonate alkalinity to flow-through acid mine drainage. Both ALDs received mine water contami-nated with Fe 2+ (216-279 mg -I) and Mn (41-51 m g L -~). F low through the Howe Bridge ALD...
Passive treatment represents an alternative to conventional chemical treatment of coal mine drainage. When successful, passive systems require less investment, less maintenance and usually are less expensive than conventional chemical treatment systems. As a result, during the last seven years, more than 500 passive systems have been constructed in...
Passive treatment of mine water can be a low-cost alternative to conventional chemical treatment or can be used to reduce chemical costs by eliminating most of the pollutant load. Water quality, flow data and site characteristics determine whether passive treatment should be used at a specific site. However, based on its rapid adoption by the coal...
A method has been developed to predict the alkalinity generated by anoxic limestone drains (ALDs) using a specific mine water and a selected limestone material. Collapsible, 3.8-liter (1.0 gal) containers were loaded with. limestone, filled with untreated mine water, and the generation of alkalinity was monitored by periodic extraction of water sam...
Simple anaerobic reactors were installed to treat metal-contaminated water in an underground coal mine and at a smelting residues dump in Pennsylvania. The reactors consisted of barrels and tanks filled with spent mushroom compost, within which bacterial sulfate reduction became established. Concentrations of Al, Cd, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn were typical...
The hypothesis that the establishment of volunteer aspen on acidic coal spoils is limited by colonization problems was tested by amending bare spoil with surface applications of limestone (5500 kg/ha), fertilizer (750 kg/ha of 5-10-5) and root or stem wood chips (0.5 m3/ha). The experiment was conducted on lower Allegheny spoils near Emlenton, Pa....
The rate of 1 imestone dissolution and a1 kal inity generation in an anoxic 1 imestone drain is determined by many factors, including the qua1 i ty of the limestone used and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide within the system. Carbon dioxide concentrations greater than
The purpose of this study was to determine what role lakeshore homeowner associations might play in environmental management. Lakeshore homeowner associations are formally organized groups of individuals owning property on or in the vicinity of a lake. Lakeshore homeowner associations in the Adirondack Park region of New York State were investigate...
Passive methods of treating mine water use chemical and biological processes that decrease metal concentrations and neutralize acidity. Compared with conventional chemical treatment, passive methods generally require more land area, but use less costly reagents and require less operational attention and maintenance. Currenlty, three types of passiv...
Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 1987. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 302-313). Photocopy.