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British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium
Development of a wetland treatment system at United Keno Hill Mines, Eisa, Yukon Territory Sobolewski, André
Abstract
An adit on the United Keno Hill property discharges water at 1-10 L/sec with 20-30 mg/L (ppm) zinc. This paper describes how a wetland treatment system was developed to passively treat this discharge. Adit water was supplied to a 180 m² pilot-scale wetland at a rate of 18 L/min. The wetland reduced zinc concentrations from 25 ppm to approximately 3 pprn. However, water in parts of the wetland had 0.3 ppm zinc. Microcosms established within the wetland reduced zinc concentrations to <0.2 ppm. Cobalt, iron, manganese, and nickel were also removed in the wetland and the microcosms. Finally, a natural wetland receiving water with 3 ppm zinc produced a discharge of 0.3 ppm zinc. Taken together, these results suggest that a constructed wetland can, in principle, reduce zinc below the permitted discharge limit of 0.5 ppm. Zinc appeared to be retained in the pilot wetland by reacting with hydrogen sulphide, generated in sediments by sulphate-reducing bacteria. Metals accumulating in natural wetlands receiving mine-impacted water were primarily retained with iron and/or manganese oxides, or as sulphides. These metals were not taken up by wetland plants.
Item Metadata
Title |
Development of a wetland treatment system at United Keno Hill Mines, Eisa, Yukon Territory
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Creator | |
Contributor | |
Date Issued |
1996
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Description |
An adit on the United Keno Hill property discharges water at 1-10 L/sec with 20-30 mg/L (ppm) zinc. This paper describes how a wetland treatment system was developed to passively treat this discharge.
Adit water was supplied to a 180 m² pilot-scale wetland at a rate of 18 L/min. The wetland reduced zinc concentrations from 25 ppm to approximately 3 pprn. However, water in parts of the wetland had 0.3 ppm
zinc. Microcosms established within the wetland reduced zinc concentrations to <0.2 ppm. Cobalt, iron, manganese, and nickel were also removed in the wetland and the microcosms. Finally, a natural wetland
receiving water with 3 ppm zinc produced a discharge of 0.3 ppm zinc. Taken together, these results suggest that a constructed wetland can, in principle, reduce zinc below the permitted discharge limit of 0.5 ppm.
Zinc appeared to be retained in the pilot wetland by reacting with hydrogen sulphide, generated in sediments by sulphate-reducing bacteria. Metals accumulating in natural wetlands receiving mine-impacted water were primarily retained with iron and/or manganese oxides, or as sulphides. These metals were not taken up by wetland plants.
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595986 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-07-14
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0042298
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URI | |
Affiliation | |
Peer Review Status |
Unreviewed
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Scholarly Level |
Other
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Copyright Holder |
British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation
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Rights URI | |
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International