Jadwiga Szczepanska’s research while affiliated with AGH University of Krakow and other places

IntroductionGeology and hydrogeologyMethods Environmental tracers and modelling of timescalesHydrochemistry and its relations to timescalesConclusions References

According to the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EU (WFD, 2000) and the project of the Daughter Groundwater Directive (GWD, 2003), water chemical status should be assessed for all usable groundwater bodies (GWBs) or group of bodies to identify any significant and sustained upward trend of concentrations of pollutants found in these bodies of groundwater, and define the starting point for trend reversals. Groundwater is a resource at risk, thus correct assessment of its chemical status and identification of risk, in particular in shared groundwater bodies is of a vital importance and has significant political dimension as a potential source of conflicts. The presented studies carried out on two selected objects within the EU 5FP BASELINE and 6FP BRIDGE projects were aimed to contribute to evaluating natural baseline quality in European Aquifer and to establishing reliable common approach for assessing groundwater chemical status based on the criteria set by WFD (2000) and GWD (2003), and with using also national regulations and threshold values (RMS, 2004). Assessment of groundwater chemical status performed in parallel in the point and spatial mode based on aggregation with use of median values proved this procedure to be the most appropriate. Application of the point method enables visualization of areas (within the drainage basin or groundwater bodies) of different groundwater chemical status for a correct decision-making, early identification of a risk and timely undertaking interception/reversal actions for restoration of good groundwater status. Spatial assessment of groundwater chemical status on the basis of concentration data aggregated with use of either mean or median values was proved to cause over- or underestimation of risks that lead to wrong decisions resulting in considerable economic losses, possible damage to human health and the environment, and to unavoidable conflicts in case of shared groundwater resources. The spatial assessment was found to be more reliable if performed on the basis of median values, and not of arithmetic mean, as recommended by WFD (2000) and GWD (2003). This results from the fact that chemical constituents of groundwater usually display log-normal distribution, and in this case median is not susceptible to a deformation to such extent as mean value. In GWBs of multilayer structure, assessing groundwater chemical status should be accomplished separately for groundwater of shallow and deeper circulation due to different exposure to contamination sources.

Lithology of the Profundal Sediments in Słupiańska Bay (Wigry Lake, NE Poland) - Introduction to Interdisciplinary Study In this paper, a lithological study taking into account trace metals of the profundal sediments from Słupiańska Bay in Wigry Lake is presented. A profile 5.26 m long has sandy muds at the bottom and moving upwards layers of calcareous gyttja, lacustrine chalk, and again calcareous gyttja are present. The profile is continuous, typical for the sediments of NE Poland formed from Allerøde to recent time. The results of the lithological analysis were correlated with results of high-resolution seismic survey. The results together with radiocarbon dating are part of interdisciplinary complex research comprising paleobiological study of pollen, Cladocera, diatom successions and human activity, which will be published in successive papers.

Sarmatian sands and buried Pleistocene valleys of the Kedzierzyn-Głubczyce Subtrough represent one of the main aquifers in southern Poland (MGWB-332 - Major Ground Water Basin). This aquifer is intensively exploited, supplying tap water for the human population and for industry in the whole area; but, being confined, it has no influence on the ground water ecosystems. Two Ground Water Bodies (GWB-128 and GWB-129), introduced by administrative decisions according to EU Directives, approximately cover the area of MGWB-332. The present study is related to the eastern part, the Sarmatian and buried valleys sands of MGWB-332, i.e. to the most important part of the multi-aquifer GWB-129 which in profile consists of Holocene and Pleistocene sands, confined Sarmatian and Pleistocene buried valley sands, and Badenian sands. The presence and influence of deeper permeable formations is not addressed. The Sarmatian and Badenian aquifers are recharged and drained mainly by vertical seepages. Hydrodynamic modelling of the whole Kedzierzyn-Głubczyce Subthrough and tracer data indicate modern ages at the outcrops of the Sarmatian under the Pleistocene deposits and mid to early Holocene ages close to the Odra River valley. Waters are of the HCO3-Ca type, changing at the centre of the Sarmatian to the SO4-Ca type due to the contribution of ascending sulphate water from the Badenian strata, whereas water in the buried Quaternary valley is of the HCO3-Na type, which means no significant contribution of ascending waters. Polluted modern waters occur only at the northwestern boundary in the area of the hydrogeological window. The quality of waters and their hydrochemistry result from water-rock interactions and seepage exchanges with overlying and underlying aquifers belonging to the same GWB. Natural distributions of most major, minor and trace constituents are very wide, exemplifying difficulties in defining the quality of water in a unique way for the whole aquifer and particularly for the investigated multi-aquifer GWB.

According to the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EU (WFD, 2000), water quality should be compulsory assessed for all bodies of usable groundwater basins (GWB). The assessment has to be accomplished in two stages: (i) preliminary assessment for identification of GWBs of poor or unsatisfactorily elucidated water quality; (ii) detailed assessment for GWBs that do not fulfill the good chemical status criteria. If this analysis confirms poor quality of ground waters, they should be subjected to a monitoring in order to found out the cause of a threat and ways of its interception. Both FWD and the draft EU Directive on the protection of groundwater against pollution (GWD, 2004) distinguish only poor or good chemical status of water, while GWD comprises a list of chemical constituents, for which the EU Member States should develop uniform threshold values by the end of 2006. The chemical status of groundwater in the selected Koprzywianka River drainage basin was evaluated within the 6FP BRIDGE project aimed at realization of this task on the basis of 37-point monitoring network with use of both national (RMS, 2004) and European (GWD, 2004) chemical parameter lists. These data were used for point and spatial evaluation of groundwater chemical status. For spatial evaluation (drainage basin and particular GWBs), the data aggregated by mean and median methods were used. The results show a better precision of groundwater status assessment both by point and spatial methods, and a need of a careful selection of monitoring points separately for shallow and deep circulation. It has been proved that the spatial assessment should be carried out on the basis of median, and not mean concentrations recommended by GWD (2004), as chemical constituents in ground waters usually display a log-normal distribution that is not susceptible to deformation to such extent as mean values.

The chemical state of groundwater in the Major Groundwater Basin (MGWB) 332 was assessed on the grounds of hydrogeochemical monitoring conducted in 2001-2003 in the network that comprised 37 monitoring wells (points). On the basis of concentration data of organic and inorganic chemical constituents, the chemical quality of water in the monitoring wells was evaluated. Aggregated data were used for an assessment of the chemical state of the whole basin. The evaluation of the water quality in the monitoring wells was conducted in accordance with the Directive of the Minister of Environment (RMS, 2004) by the comparison of concentrations of analyzed chemical constituents with limit values in the quality classes I-V. In general, the water quality fulfilled the criteria of III class, occasionally of IV and V.class. Water chemical state in MGWB 332 was evaluated as good, following the criteria specified in the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the draft EU Directive on the protection of groundwater against pollution (COM 2003), based on the mean values of chemical indicators for the whole basin. The recommended method of the chemical state assessment on the basis of mean concentrations in all the monitoring points caused vanishing the zones of unsatisfactory quality (class IV) in the averaged backgrounds. In practice, this will result in desisting from any action aiming to improvement of water quality in these zones. The results of this study show the need of reporting chemical state of groundwater quality also in the specific monitoring points, and not just in the averaged hydrogeologic units or subunits.

Mining waste is the high-volume material that originates from the processes of excavation, dressing, and further physical and chemical processing of a wide range of metalliferous and non-metalliferous minerals by opencast and deep shaft methods. It comprises overburden, run-of-mine rock, as well as discard, slurry and tailings from the preparation/beneficiation or extraction plants. The kind of mining waste and its share in the total waste stream in different countries highly depend on their natural resources, economic value of a mineral, and market demand, and therefore ranges from almost none to a predominant proportion. The major high-volume waste-generating mining activity in many countries worldwide is coal mining. Coal plays an integral role in the economy of many countries, and thus constitutes a substantial part of the global stream of mining waste. Petrographically, coal mining waste consists of argillaceous and arenaceous rocks, represented mainly by mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone with admixture of coal and coal shale. The properties of freshly wrought waste largely depend on the regional variability and stratigraphic position of mined coal seams. Mineralogical composition of the waste material is determined by the presence or dominance of the particular lithological types of carboniferous rocks, which is, in most cases, mudstone.

Waste disposal sites (landfills) can be classified as potential non-point small-area sources of aquatic environmental contamination, though the area occupied by such facilities can range from several tens of square meters to several hundred hectares. They may be formed either as waste dumps on the land surface, or onto the land as impoundments. The amount of atmospheric precipitation that percolates through the vadose zone depends upon the infiltration rate (I). At solid waste disposal facilities, particular attention should be paid to the conditions of contaminant migration in the anthropogenic vadose zone of a landfill and in the natural vadose zone beneath the landfill base. The concept behind developing vadose zone monitoring is to provide an early means to detect and, subsequently, intercept or remediate contaminants release from waste disposal facilities before they infiltrate into the saturated zone and degrade recoverable groundwater resources. By providing an early warning for taking instant remedial actions, the potential costs and the loss of recoverable groundwater resources can be greatly reduced.

Coal combustion residues are one of the most abundant high-volume waste materials. Their proportion in the total waste stream highly depends upon the role of coal in power production, and is, as a rule, the highest in coal producing countries. Coal-based power production results in generating a huge amount of coal combustion waste (CCW) worldwide. Coal statistics reflect on one hand, the range of CCW in the total waste stream and on the other hand, non-uniformity of the distribution of this waste in particular countries, producers, and the users of coal. The beneficial properties of CCW make it suitable for a wide array of commercially and technically proven applications. The traditional leading markets for CCW use are cement and concrete production, structural fills, road base and sub-base, and blasting grit/roofing granule. Traditional ways of CCW disposal are surface ponds (lagoons) or landfills. In dry compacted landfills, CCW are disposed pneumatically. For both disposal systems—that is, ponding and landfilling—a long-term environmental evaluation of disposed fly ash (FA) in relation to the actual field conditions is necessary because it has direct environmental and economic consequences.

This chapter discusses a risk management approach to the contamination caused by high volume mining waste disposal in the current disposal strategies and practices with respect to coal mining waste in the Upper Silesia coal basin (USCB) in Poland. Mine waste management practices in Australia and the United States are also discussed. Mining waste disposal permanently brings about a contamination threat to the groundwater of unprotected aquifers and surface water in dumping sites all over the world. At the stage preceding the design and construction of a dump or earthworks, the reliable evaluation of pollution potential to ground- and surface-water from waste, as well as the prognosis of the life-cycle leaching behavior and of impact on the aquatic environment in the area of the prospective waste disposal should be the basis for the dump location permit, rejection, or acceptance of a material for civil engineering constructions and protective measures to be applied.