Impact of Coal Mine Waste Discharge on Water Quality of River Damodar with Special Reference to Zinc as Contaminant

Shirin Imam¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Isroset-Journal
Vol.3 , Issue.6 , pp.1-4, Dec-2016

Online published on Dec 07, 2016

Copyright © Shirin Imam . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Almighty provided us pure water and air for all creatures on this earth, because these are essential for sustaining life. With the rapid increase in population, developmental works and industries, the environment is bound to get polluted. The increase in population has resulted in unplanned habitations giving rise to cuttings of forests, extensive mining, and waste water discharge without any treatment into the rivers / streams. Studies have shown that one of the causes of heavy metal pollution is activity like mining. The most toxic among the trace metals are heavy metals. These have great affinity for sulphur and attack the S-H bond in enzymes resulting in decreased efficiency of the later. Protein and amino acids may also be attacked by heavy metal ions. Heavy metals include lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), silver (Ag) chromium (Cr), copper (Cu) iron (Fe). The present study was undertaken to find out the extent of heavy metal pollution in water of river Damodar due to coal mining. Coal has significant quantities of impurities in the form of ash. Washing – also known as coal beneficiation it is a method to reduce these impurities. A typical washing process starts with the crushing of coal to reduce it to a suitable size when water is mixed with impure coal a dense liquid is formed due mixing of water and magnetite the clean coal floats on this liquid while impurities sink. This water from washeries along with impurities forms slurry and is contaminating river Damodar. Water pollution by heavy metals is very prominent in areas of mining and old mine. These metals are leached out and in sloppy areas, are carried along with slurry to river. This slurry is also known as coal sludge. Coal sludge also contains many heavy metals. Small amounts of heavy metals can be necessary for health, but too much may cause acute or chronic toxicity (poisoning). Many of the heavy metals released in the mining and burning of coal are environmentally and biologically toxic elements, such as lead, mercury, nickel, tin, cadmium, antimony, and arsenic, Zinc Chromium as well as radio isotopes of thorium and strontium. During the present study author tried to find out concentration of Zinc, Nickel, and chromium present in coal sludge/ slurry. Samples were collected and analyzed in laboratory.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Mining, Pollution, Coal Slurry, Beneficiation, Zinc, Toxicity, Dithizone

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