How to Help Acid Mine Drainage
There are over 9,000 miles of streams in the United States, as of 2010, that are effected by acid mine drainage, according to environmental scientist Daniel Chilas in the book Environmental Science. Scientists from West Virginia University's Agricultural & Natural Resources Development Department state that most of this is the result of abandoned mines for which no one claims responsibility. Acid mine drainage can cause acid contamination of water, mostly from sulfide materials. Ways to remedy this problem involve neutralizing acidity contamination. There are a variety of methods that are used for this purpose.
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Instructions
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How to Neutralize Acid Mine Drainage
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Determine the extent of the environmental damage. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommends identifying the primary sources of the pollution, as well as the economic feasibility of constructing a chemical cleanup facility. Plan what construction will be necessary, and determine whether the contaminated area will allow for construction.
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Create a chemical treatment system for the contaminated water drainoff. A chemical treatment system involves an inflow pipe or ditch which discharges the polluted water. This leads to a storage tank or bin which holds the treatment chemical. A settling pond captures the metals, and the purified water is discharged into the environment. At the discharge point, the purified water must meet federal regulations set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
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Choose the chemicals are best suited to your particular application. There are six primary chemicals used to treat acid-polluted mine drainage. These include, limestone (calcium carbonate), hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) pebble quicklime (calcium oxide), soda ash (sodium carbonate), caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), liquid caustic (sodium hydroxide) and ammonia.
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Determine the amount of chemical that will be needed to neutralize the water by multiplying the flow, in gallons per minute, by the acidity level in milligrams per liter (mg/l). This product is then multiplied by a factor of .0022. This product provides the value of the tons of acid that will needed to be neutralized per year. Multiply this number, then, by the conversion factor for the particular treatment chemical that you will use. This will provide you with the amount of chemical that will be needed to neutralize the contaminated water.
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