John D. Quaranta's research while affiliated with West Virginia University and other places
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Publications (28)
The treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) involves chemical additives to raise pH and precipitate solubilized metals. The byproduct of this process is an AMD sludge precipitate, and its management and disposal are a continuous environmental legacy. This study evaluated the application of AMD sludge as a soil amendment to support vegetation establis...
This research investigates geotextile filtration efficiencies for large-scale dewatering of a two-stage selective precipitation acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment process to recover rare earth elements (REE) sludge. The REE precipitate contained particle sizes of 8.5 × 10–5 mm, which are much smaller than the typical AMD single-split particle size...
The treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) involves chemical treatments to raise pH and precipitate solubilized metals. The byproduct of this process is an AMD sludge precipitate, and its management and disposal are a continuous environmental concern. This study evaluated the application of AMD sludge as a soil amendment to support vegetation establ...
Geomorphic reclaimed landforms aim to improve groundwater movement and diminish contaminant transport through increased runoff and reduced groundwater infiltration. The objective of this research was to determine if geomorphic reclamation techniques result in improved selenium concentrations of discharge water as compared to conventional reclamatio...
Minimising erosion resulting from mining is important to improve of reclamation and management. Geomorphic landform design (GLD) is a reclamation technique that attempts to replicate a long-term erosionally stable condition. Erosion was evaluated using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) comparing two reclamation scenarios (conventiona...
Maximizing the use of onsite material to create topsoil has the potential to reduce costs for mine reclamation in the eastern United States. This study evaluated the addition of short paper fiber (SPF), a by-product of paper mill processing, to coarse coal refuse (CCR) to aid in vegetation establishment. Vegetation growth in two blends of SPF and C...
Water infiltration of coal refuse piles leads to an increase of acidity in groundwater and nearby streams and rivers. This study tested the effect of adding short paper fiber as a soil amendment to establish and maintain vegetative cover in coarse coal refuse. Two blends of short paper fiber and coarse coal refuse were tested for use as a topsoil m...
Restoration of abandoned mine lands is on-going in Appalachia and across the United States. One potential technique to reclaim these areas is through the use of geomorphic landforming combined with paper mill residuals used as a soil amendment. The geomorphic approach attempts to approximate the long-term, steady state landform condition, leading t...
The Marcellus Shale formation contains large natural gas reserves, which are increasingly being extracted using horizontal drilling techniques. Concerns about environmental effects have prompted studies regarding Marcellus operations, including the safety of pits and impoundments containing frac fluids and freshwater. A subset of these structures i...
The geomorphic landform design (GLD) approach has the potential to incorporate stream networks into valley-fill reclamation. This work modelled the potential hydrologic response of GLD by evaluating storm response as well as flooding of the receiving reach of one West Virginia valley fill in several construction phases (i.e. pre-mining, conventiona...
Natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing generates large amounts of water contaminated with salts, metals, and chemical additives. In this study, we tested the possibility of using the halophilic microalga, Dunaliella salina, for the treatment of hydraulic fracturing produced water while producing biodiesel. Produced water (salinity 52.7 – 63...
Waste from coal cleaning processes includes coarse size fractions (i.e., coarse refuse) and small particles (i.e., fine refuse). The aqueous suspension of fine refuse, referred to as coal slurry, frequently contains potentially toxic substances, including hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and coal cleaning chemicals. Disposal of coal slurry using undergr...
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Wet coal cleaning produces fine coal slurry, which is commonly disposed of in surface impoundments. Following impoundment failures in the early 1970s, regulatory agencies encouraged placement of coal slurry in underground mine voids. That option was not without environmental risk, since it placed slurry in direct contact with mine water, a major co...
The intent of geomorphic landform design is to mimic the function of the natural landscape. In a surface mine reclamation application, geomorphic landform design has the potential to mitigate stream loss. This research quantified features of reference landforms and performed computer modeling of a conceptual valley-fill design using geomorphic land...
Gas recovery from shale formations has been made possible by advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology. Rapid adoption of these methods has created a surge in natural gas production in the United States and increased public concern about its environmental and human health effects. We surveyed the environmental literature r...
Hydraulic fracturing, combined with horizontal well development, has resulted in rapid expansion of gas production in the Appalachian Marcellus shale formation. In the past three years, over 2000 horizontal/hydraulic fracture (HHF) wells have been developed in Pennsylvania, presenting significant potential for environmental degradation and human he...
Floodplain management consists of efforts to reduce flood damage to critical infrastructure and to protect the life and health of individuals from flooding. A major component of this effort is the monitoring of flood control structures such as dams because the potential failure of these structures may have catastrophic consequences. To prepare for...
This research developed an application to provide mine impoundment inspectors and regulatory agencies with improved field inspection methodology, accuracy in inspection data management, and record keeping to assist in dam inspection, ultimately leading to improved impoundment safety. The research project developed software applications which couple...
Emergency action plans (EAP) used in dam safety have been developed and standardized by several government and state agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the State of West Virginia. All of the EAP formats share typical themes including: field inspection, emergenc...
This paper presents research findings on grain size distribution changes of coal refuse affecting the design of non-woven geotextiles used as filters in rock drains at coal waste impoundments. The research involved performing hydraulic conductivity tests on refuse – geotextile filters followed by grain size distribution tests. Data was evaluated fo...
The US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued the Second Edition of Engineering and Design Manual for Coal Refuse Disposal Facilities prepared by D'Appolonia in 2009. This second edition provides design guidance on the use of nonwoven geotextiles for drainage applications when replacing graded granular filters in coal waste impoundment...
Citations
... Among the various choices for earthwork solutions, geotextile stands out as a preferred option due to its cost-effectiveness and ability to meet performance requirements [42][43][44]. where O 95 is the opening size in the geotextile, for which 95% is smaller (mm). B is a coefficient (dimensionless) that varies between 0.5 and 2, and it depends on factors such as the soil type being filtered, its density, the uniformity coefficient ( c u ) if the soil is granular, the type of geotextile (woven or non-woven), and the flow conditions. ...
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... Their results revealed that the potential for soil erosion upsurges is due to mining operations disturbing the soil. The results of the study by Sears et al. (2020) on erosion at valley fills with two reclamation techniques in mountainous terrain revealed that soil loss rates were higher during the reclamation as compared with that of undisturbed area. Also, research by Lv et al. (2020) on erosion characteristics of different reclaimed areas in China showed increase of sediment yield and runoff for all the reclaimed methods. ...
... The cap and cover system studied in this work was designed as part of a reclamation plan for a coarse coal refuse in Greenbrier County, WV, as described by Hopkinson et al. (2017). The intent was to control AMD by promoting infiltration into and evapotranspiration out of the growth layer and to minimize infiltration into the refuse pile (Skousen et al., 2019). ...
... There is a regulatory emphasis on minimizing stream burial, perceived cost is high, and the steep youthful terrain is difficult to work in (Michael et al., 2010). Continued research has shown that difficulties associated with steep slopes and stability (both channel and hillslope) are valid when minimizing the area of impact , and methods have been developed to overcome some of these challenges (e.g., Sears et al. 2014;Michael et al., 2015;DePriest et al., 2015). ...
... In this paper we base on known and tested methods, modified for the need for thorough analysis. The appropriately pre-processed signal could be further analyzed using time series or statistical models techniques [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] to answer how big the peak can be, how fast it will decay and finally-when the safe value (26 ppm, according to the regulation of the Minister of Energy related to operations of underground mining [19]) of CO concentration will be achieved after blasting. Such knowledge is very important for daily decisions [19], as well as, for long-term strategic mine planning. ...
... The area was analyzed within the WinTR-55 program ( NRCS, 2009). A Curve Number of 89 was assumed on all sub-areas indicative of hard-packed coarse coal refuse ( Hopkinson et al., 2015) as was used as a conservative value. A precipitation depth of 5.44 in was assumed (NOAA, 2015). ...
... The success of geomorphic reclamation in the southwestern U.S. has prompted an analysis of the approach as an alternative reclamation method in the central Appalachian United States, where environmental impact issues associated with mountaintop mining and excess spoil fill (or valley fill) construction are common (e.g., Michael et al., 2010;Sears et al., 2013;Russell et al., 2014). Over 2300 valley fills have been permitted in West Virginia, USA ( Fig. 1), with an estimated buried stream length of over 1900 km (USEPA, 2011). ...
... The advantages of such procedures relate to the fact that the geomorphic reclamation allows less water to infiltrate, moving water through the fill at a faster rate, but without being erosive, having less storage volume, and lower pore pressure buildup. In this regard, Russell et al. (2014) found that the geomorphic design slope stability analysis yielded much higher factors of safety compared to traditional valley fills (over 2.0 compared to 1.3). The reason for these high slope stability factors of safety is that the geomorphic designs have shallow slopes and beneficial drainage (surface and internal), avoiding an increase in pore pressure that often triggers slope instability. ...
... Ranjbar et al. [43] cultivated Dunaliella salina in two PW samples obtained from the hydraulic fracturing process during natural gas extraction. Based on the analyzed parameters, the authors reported a slight phosphorus deficiency in Sample 1 and a mild nitrogen deficiency in Sample 2. Supplementation of the samples with 112.5 mg/L NaNO 3 , 4.5 mg/L Na 2 HPO 4 , and 3.75 mg/L K 2 HPO 4 , among other nutrients, resulted in a longer exponential growth phase and increased biomass. ...
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... Coal-washing operations produce a muddy by-product, i.e., coal slime, which has small primary particle sizes with high water content. As the amount of coal washing increases, so does coal slime production [1,2]. The nature of coal slime is sticky and prone to clumping, which makes it challenging to handle, store, transport, and process. ...
