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Mining Influenced Water Technology Demonstration Program
Citation:
Dunnington, L., B. Butler, Kimberly Prestbo, AND M. Mahoney. Mining Influenced Water Technology Demonstration Program. West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium & 15th International Mine Water Association Congress, Morgantown, WV, April 21 - 26, 2024.
Impact/Purpose:
Conventional mining-influenced water (MIW) water treatment facilities are expensive to operate and maintain - partly because metals containing sludge produced requires management and disposal over long periods, sometimes in perpetuity. In 2020, EPA’s Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) started a mining site treatment technology field demonstration program with the goal to identify and demonstrate promising treatment technologies that improve, complement or replace conventional treatment technologies for MIW at Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) hardrock abandoned mine land (AML) and mineral processing sites. The presentation will cover two of the technologies piloted within the program: an in-tunnel treatment at the Captain Jack site and a passive treatment at the Elizabeth Mine site. Sharing the lessons learned to date from these sites is of use to program offices, regional offices, and others seeking treatment technologies for water at mining sites.
Description:
Conventional mining-influenced (MIW) treatment facilities are expensive to operate and maintain, partly because they produce large quantities of metals-containing sludge that must be managed for years or decades, and in some cases in perpetuity. In 2020, EPA’s Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) initiated a mining site treatment technology field demonstration program. The program’s primary goal is to identify and demonstrate promising treatment technologies that improve, complement, or serve as a viable alternative to conventional treatment technologies for MIW at Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) hardrock abandoned mine land (AML) and mineral processing sites. With input from EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and EPA Regional offices, OSRTI selected candidate AML evaluation sites with planned technologies of interest to participate in one-to-three-year field demonstrations. Two of these sites are the Captain Jack Mill (CJM) Superfund site in Colorado and the Elizabeth Mine Superfund site in Vermont. The remedy evaluation at the CJM Superfund site includes an innovative in-tunnel water treatment technology that provides adequate space and retention time for treatment and sludge disposal in a high topographic relief area where flat space is limited. It also provides source control and cost savings by using the same infrastructure for site characterization, amendment addition and performance monitoring. The in-tunnel treatment system aims to reduce metals and acidity loading to nearby Left Hand Creek. The remedy at the Elizabeth Mine site includes the use of a passive treatment system (PTS). The PTS treatment process consists of an anoxic limestone drain (ALD), which adds alkalinity to the drainage from Tailings Pile 1, a settling pond where ALD effluent and low iron-loading drain discharges mix, a vertical flow pond, and two constructed wetlands. The system is designed to be completely passive, with little maintenance projected for 10 years. This presentation describes the innovative technologies and lessons learned from OSRTI's technology field demonstration program to date and specifically highlights the CJM and Elizabeth Mine sites.