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Environmental management of hazardous mining wastes and effluents

Objective

Mining activities in Russia, associated with coal and mixed sulphide ores and concentrates generate every year, millions of tons of hazardous wastes, which are stockpiled in the vicinity of major cities (Moscow, Ekaterinenburg, etc). These wastes are oxidized, due to the action of precipitation, oxygen and bacteria and therefore, acidic waters and lactates with a very low pH and high concentrations of heavy and toxic elements are generated. These lactates migrate and contaminate severely major lakes, rivers and groundwater reservoirs, endangering thus the quality of the environment and the health of million of people. The present proposal, aims at the development and application of preventative and remedial technologies in order
a) to decontaminate the hazardous wastes,
b) clean up the effluents and
c) isolate hazardous waste dumps, in order to eliminate all these active pollution sources and protect the environment.
The major deliverables of the ENVIMAN project are:
- A detailed methodology for the characterization of hazardous solid wastes and effluents;
- The development of an innovative risk assessment methodology;
- The research on innovative techniques for the remediation of waste dumps and groundwater;
- The in situ field application of a remediation technology in Russia;
- The development of an integrated waste management scheme.

The steps followed for the assessment of risk for each of the sites studied included:
- Release assessment;
- Exposure assessment;
-Consequence assessment;
- Risk estimation.

In the risk estimation step, integration of the results derived from the waste characterisation step was carried out, in order to produce a quantitative estimate of the likelihood of risk for each of the sites studied. The model developed was programmed in a flexible computer language that allows incorporation of statistical and spatial analysis techniques to quantify the risks and the uncertainty. The GIS database served as a source of spatial information that is certain to play critical role during the model development. For this reason, the GIS database developed was linked with the model where possible. The integration of the system upgrades the quantitative risk assessment model to a flexible two-dimensional modelling system capable to carry out added spatial manipulation capabilities and provide geographic information and graphical outputs (maps) of the risks estimated for each studied area. The quantitative risk assessment model used is one of the innovative aspects of the project. This generic model development not only is relevant to the sites in the partner's countries, but may also assist in the development of similar models for other sites under study in EU and NIS.

Regarding innovative techniques for waste dumps and groundwater remediation, the activities carried out were focused on:
- the evaluation of Permeable Reactive Barriers(RRB) technique at large laboratory scale (including a series of reactors) and a number of candidate materials namely limestone, fly ash and red mud which are considered as low cost wastes / by-products derived from other mining and metallurgical activities. These materials exist in vast quantities in the target countries (Russia and Ukraine) and can be utilized for the construction of PRBs and the prevention of groundwater contamination from leachates produced at the sites under study. The work on this issue has been completed successfully and a number of publications in refereed journals that summarize the research results and indicate the feasibility of the process can be seen;
- the implementation of a composite cover on hazardous waste dumps, by modifying the high acid generation potential of the wastes with alkaline additives. An in situ pilot application was designed, successfully implemented and monitored in Russia;
- the development of thermal treatment technique, both at large laboratory and pilot scale, for the stabilisation/neutralization of coal wastes and the production of secondary by-products. A number of papers have been published in refereed journals / presented in conferences;
- the decontamination of uranium bearing wastes and the resulting leachates mainly with the use of constructed wetlands as well as soil decontamination in neighbouring sites affected by uranium activities. A number of papers were presented in international conferences. Finally, an integrated waste management scheme was developed. This scheme involves the methodology to characterize the affected sites, to define the risk using qualitative and quantitative criteria and finally to design, implement and monitor remedial activities in order to prevent / minimize contamination, protect the quality of soil, surface;
- and groundwater and ultimately safeguard the quality of the affected ecosystems. This integrated waste management scheme is based on the existing EU and target countries legislation, while incorporates best practices and state of the art technologies used today.

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Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
EU contribution
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Address
Zographou Campus
15780 ATHENS
Greece

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Participants (4)

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Last update: 5 April 2023

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/ICA2-CT-2000-10010

European Union, 2024