What is a colliery spoil?

Colliery spoil consists of material from the sedimentary strata adjacent to the coal seams, waste produced from the sinking of shafts and other works, dirt, and fragments of coal. If washery waste has been deposited, the residues of the chemicals used in the washing process may also be found.

What Colliery means?

Definition of colliery : a coal mine and its connected buildings.

Does coal contaminate soil?

Coal-fired thermal power stations (TPSs) may contaminate the surrounding soil and could lead to pollution levels that can affect human health. Soil samples collected from the immediate vicinity of a TPS were analysed for heavy metals.

What is a coal mine spoil tip?

A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated spoil – waste material removed during mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone and other residues.

What is spoil material?

Spoil-material means excavated earth material which is unsuitable for reuse as backfill or base material. Spoil material(s) is usually removed from the site but sometime is allowed as fill located outside the limits of potential construction.

Why is mine water acidic?

If you excavate coal, metal ores or other minerals, you may expose rocks and minerals that contain sulphur. If sulphur mixes with water and oxygen it can cause groundwater to become acidic. This is called acid mine drainage (AMD).

What was a colliery used for?

A colliery is a coal mine.

What was a colliery agent?

In the management hierarchy the agent was superior to the colliery manager and under-manager, who had day to day operational responsibility. An agent responsible for several collieries and managers was termed a “general manager”. Airway. A roadway used for ventilation.

How do mining activities contaminate soil?

Erosion of exposed soils, extracted mineral ores, tailings, and fine material in waste rock piles can result in substantial sediment loading to surface waters and drainage ways. In addition, spills and leaks of hazardous materials and the deposition of contaminated windblown dust can lead to soil contamination.

How does mining contaminate soil?

In particular, soil in the proximity of mining activities can be contaminated mainly by the leaching of mining waste [21]. These mining wastes produced at all stages of the mining activity (ore extraction, ore beneficiation and metallurgical extraction) are in most cases deposited in the open air.

What is slag from coal mining?

This stuff is boiler slag, which is a recycled product from coal burning plants. When coal is “fired” at over 2500 degrees it melts and produces a by-product called slag.

What is a spoil in wastewater?

What Does Spoil Mean? Spoil or muck in the context of trenchless construction is the slurry of soil and broken rock fragments or drill cuttings produced as a result of the drilling process.

What are spoils in plumbing?

Spoil piles are excavated materials consisting of topsoil or subsoils that have been removed and temporarily stored during the construction activity.

Is mine water toxic?

Heavy metals can be leached from rocks that come in contact with the acid, a process that may be substantially enhanced by bacterial action. The resulting fluids may be highly toxic and, when mixed with groundwater, surface water and soil, may have harmful effects on humans, animals and plants.

What is the main contaminant of concern in acid mine drainage?

Mine drainage is formed when pyrite (an iron sulfide) is exposed and reacts with air and water to form sulfuric acid and dissolved iron. Some or all of this iron can precipitate to form the red, orange, or yellow sediments in the bottom of streams containing mine drainage.

What are the environmental impacts of coal?

Environmental impacts associated with using coal as an energy source are particulate emission, ground level ozone, smog and acid rain. Coal and fuel oil combustion emit fly ash particles into the atmosphere, which contribute to air pollution problems.

Why is coal mining bad for the environment?

Coal mining harms land, surface waters, groundwater and even our air. 4 Impacts to the land from mining cause drastic changes in the local area. Damage to plants, animals and humans occurs from the destruction and removal of habitat and environ- mental contamination.

Does mining pollute water?

Mine waste, heavy metals and acidic water often end up in streams and rivers. Mining has polluted the headwaters of more than 40 percent of Western watersheds, according to the EPA.

How do mines pollute rivers?

Heavy metal contamination (Leachate): When arsenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc metals are exposed to water, heavy metal contamination occurs. When the metals leach from the rock, they also run into the nearby water sources and pollute the water.

How does mining contaminate water?

Mining companies generally use chemical compounds such as sulphuric acid or cyanide to separate their respective target minerals from the ore. Contamination occurs when these chemicals are leached, leaked, or spilled from the mining area into the nearby bodies of water.

What are the environmental effects of colliery spoil?

Acid drainage from old workings can affect surface water quality. Colliery spoil waste has been spread over many areas to backfill old quarries and opencast coal mining sites, and as base for railways and railway embankments. Colliery spoil was often used to make up ground levels for development, such as terraced school playing field sites.

What is Colliery spill?

Colliery spoil consists of material from the sedimentary strata adjacent to the coal seams, waste produced from the sinking of shafts and other works, dirt, and fragments of coal. If washery waste has been deposited, the residues of the chemicals used in the washing process may also be found.

What are colliery spoil tips?

Colliery spoil tips may be subject to mines and quarries legislation, much of which was introduced in response to the 1966 Aberfan spoil-tip disaster. Bioavailability: the proportion of a chemical released from soil that releases when it enters the human body.

Is colliery waste a hazardous waste?

Colliery waste and soils with a significant coal content that are removed from development sites are mostly hazardous waste due to high loss on ignition (LOI) or total organic carbon (TOC) values associated with the high coal content. No colliery waste-specific regulations exist.

What is colliery spoil tip?

Spoil tip. A spoil tip is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone and various other residues.

What is a spoil in mining?

Spoil consists of mining debris and waste. A major source of acid-mine drainage is iron-sulfide-rich spoil associated with coal mining, and spoil from metal sulfide mines, such as copper and gold mining operations (1).

What are the characteristics of open pit mining?

Ability to mine selectively for certain grades of ore. Comparatively small crew size. Elimination of safety hazards that can accompany complex underground mining operations. Easy drainage of subsurface water.

Who was blamed for Aberfan disaster?

the National Coal Board
Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board. This blame is shared (though in varying degrees) among the National Coal Board headquarters, the South Western Divisional Board, and certain individuals. II. There was a total absence of tipping policy and this was the basic cause of the disaster.

What is spoil in construction?

Spoil types. Spoil is defined as any earthen material that is surplus to requirements or unsuitable for re- use in fill and embankments (such as unsuitable rock and soil material) or material that is contaminated.

What are concrete spoils?

Spalling concrete is a common problem where part of the surface peels, breaks or chips away. Also known as scaling, it is the result of a weak surface that is susceptible to damage.

What is spoil in road construction?

Spoil means excess material removed as overburden or generated during road or landing construction which is not used within limits of construction.

What are 3 environmental problems caused by open-pit mining?

However, mining processes can cause various environmental problems, including deforestation, soil erosion, destruction of the natural landscape, landslides, water-level reduction and surface water depletion through dewatering, as well as water and soil pollution from mining waste and tailing dust [3–7].

How open-pit mining affects the environment?

Among the major concerns about open-pit mining are the change in landform, the generation of an acid mine drainage, and the deprivation of water supply. All these, however, can be reversed, mitigated, if not totally avoided, with the proper engineering solutions, using advances in technology.

Were the bodies of Aberfan recovered?

The smaller Aberfan Calvinistic Chapel nearby was used as a second mortuary from 22 to 29 October. By the morning of Saturday 22 October, 111 bodies had been recovered, of which 51 had been identified.

Did the families of Aberfan get compensation?

Eventually, the NCB paid out a total of pounds 160,000 – pounds 500 for each child, money for traumatised survivors and compensation for damage to property. The disaster, on 21 October 1966, buried Pantglas school under an avalanche of colliery waste when a tip above the village collapsed.

What is a drill spoil?

What causes concrete to pit?

During a pour, if too much accelerator is used, used so the concrete sets before bad weather comes, it can cause a pitting to occur. The accelerator will force water to dry faster inside the concrete, and this creates the dimpled, pitted surface in driveway.

What is spalling in a building?

Spalling is break away of concrete surface which often extends to the top layers of reinforcing steel.

What is pit excavation in construction?

excavation of pits allows a simple assessment of the water level and its changes; excavations provide an opportunity to determine the soil and bulk soil layers; it is a proven method of reconstructing roads.

How can mines damage the environment?

Across the world, mining contributes to erosion, sinkholes, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, significant use of water resources, dammed rivers and ponded waters, wastewater disposal issues, acid mine drainage and contamination of soil, ground and surface water, all of which can lead to health issues in local …

What are 2/3 environmental problems caused by underground mining?

Mining adversely affects the environment by inducing loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and contamination of surface water, groundwater, and soil. Mining can also trigger the formation of sinkholes.