NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | страница 39

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The Impacts of Mining Pollution on Freshwater Communities and Water Quality
Abstract
Acid mine drainage (AMD), the discharge of acidic waters from abandoned coal mines, poses a
severe environmental threat to freshwater communities and water quality of rivers and streams.
AMD is characterised by elevated levels of metals such as iron, aluminium, zinc, cadmium,
magnesium, copper etc. which consequently impacts the water quality and the aquatic communities
that will be present, with the emergence of metal pollutant-tolerant families over more pollutantsensitive families. This paper investigated an abandoned coal mine situated in Nottinghamshire, UK.
The main aim was to determine if there was any AMD being discharged from the mine into a nearby
freshwater river. Studying macro-invertebrate abundance and microbial communities upstream and
downstream of the effluent, as well as testing for the presence of metals, will show if the river is
contaminated by AMD. The results suggested that the river was slightly contaminated by the
effluent and it was having an impact on the freshwater communities present. Pollutant sensitive
families such as Gammaridae and Glossosomatidae were absent or severely depleted in abundance
at the downstream sites compared to the control site whereas pollutant tolerant families such as
Chironomidae, Sphaeriidae and Hydrobiidae thrived downstream. Testing for the presence of metals
showed that the river contained elevated levels of iron, aluminium, magnesium and potassium,
which also suggests the river is contaminated while the microbial results did not give any significant
data to suggest that microbial communities were being impacted by AMD contamination.
R estoration methods need to be put into place to reduce and prevent the impact AMD is having on
the River Poulter. Source control, migration control, permeable reactive barriers and abiotic and
biological remediation strategies are all effective options that could reverse the effects of the acidic
waters caused by AMD and could be used in this situation to rectify this problem.
Keywords: Acid Mine Drainage, Coal Mining, Environmental Impacts, Macro-invertebrates, Water
Quality.
Hannah Brown

Hannah Brown N0328606