Heavy Metal Pollution Downstream of Old Mining Camps as a Result of Flood Events: an Example from the Mulde River System, Eastern Part of Germany

Knittel, Ulrich; Klemm, W.; Greif, Annia

doi:10.3319/tao.2005.16.4.919(gig)

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The region of Bitterfeld is an example of severe contamination with pollutants that are partly allochthonous and partly autochthonous. As Bitterfeld is situated at the River Vereinigte Mulde, in the past, flood events of the river Mulde led to the transport of arsenic and heavy metals from the Ore Mountains in the upper catchment and open lignite pits in the lower catchment into the floodplain of Bitterfeld [5]. In contrast, locally confined soil contamination with mercury and organic pollutants, such as dioxins, HCH, and DDT, originate from chemical industries, present in and around Bitterfeld since the last decades of the 19 th century [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dynamic Model to Simulate Arsenic, Lead, and Mercury Contamination in the Terrestrial Environment During Extreme Floods of Rivers

Schulz¹,

Büttner

Baborowski

et al. 2009

CLEAN Soil Air Water

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Beside damages of infrastructure in industrial regions, extreme floods can cause contamination with particle-bound pollutants, e. g., due to erosion of soils and sediments. In order to predict contamination with inorganic pollutants, the transport and fate of arsenic, lead, and mercury during a fictive flood event of River Vereinigte Mulde in the region of Bitterfeld (Germany) with 200 years recurrence time was modeled. The finite element model system Telemac2D, which is subdivided into a hydrodynamic (Telemac-2D), a transport (Subief-2D), and a water quality module (wq2subief) was applied. The transport and water quality model models were calibrated using results of sediment trap exposures in the floodplain of River Vereinigte Mulde. Model results exhibited that the spatial patterns of particle-associated arsenic and lead concentrations significantly changed. Extended, mostly agriculturally used areas showed arsenic and lead concentrations between 150 and 200 mg kg -1 and 250 and 300 mg kg -1 , respectively, while urban areas were to a great extent spared from high contamination with arsenic and lead. Concentrations of particle-associated mercury showed a pattern distinct from those of arsenic and lead. Outside of small patches with concentrations up to 63 mg kg -1 , concentrations of particle-associated mercury remained close to zero. Differences in the spatial patterns of the three pollutants regarded mainly arise from significantly different initial and boundary conditions. Sensitivity analyses of initial and boundary conditions revealed a high sensitivity of particlebound pollutant concentrations, whereas the sensitivities of concentrations of suspended sediments and soluble pollutants were mediocre to negligible.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dynamic Model to Simulate Arsenic, Lead, and Mercury Contamination in the Terrestrial Environment During Extreme Floods of Rivers

Schulz¹,

Büttner

Baborowski

et al. 2009

CLEAN Soil Air Water

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“…Significant base metal mines elsewhere result in tailings contamination of major drainages for tens of kilometres (e.g. Jennet and Foil, 1979;Knittel, Klemm and Greif, 2005). Despite the time elapsed since mining, some evidence for this huge quantity of waste should be evident in the Melle landscape, yet no evidence for this has been documented.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geological and Mining Constraints on Historical Mine Production: The Case of Early Medieval Lead-Silver Mining at Melle, France

Bettenay

2022

METALLA

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Early Medieval silver production for the Melle Pb-Ag deposit in western France has been estimated up to 15 tonnes per year over hundreds of years (Téreygeol, 2013) which would place it amongst the top silver mines of all times prior to the New World discoveries. However, this deposit has geological and mining characteristics economically unsuitable for substantial production, because it is thin, sub-horizontal and comprised of discontinuous pods. Furthermore, it is a Mississippi Valley type (MVT) base metal deposit, which are typically not major silver producers. There is no geological evidence for primary or secondary enrichment to generate silver-rich ore. Inaddition, the fact that Melle remained unmined in all later historical periods is enigmatic compared to the almost ubiquitous reworking of significant ore deposits elsewhere.In this paper, I discuss the geological characteristics, mining parameters, documented historical mining rates and workforce considerations, all of which can be used to constrain production estimates for Melle. The largest uncertainty for production estimates is the workforce size, which reflects scarce information about Carolingian Melle and its surroundings. A model employing realistic mining parameters and a workforce appropriate for a small mining village (100 miners/fire-setters, within a workforce of 250-300, from a settlement of at least 400-500) yields 52 tonnes of lead metal and 150 kg of silver per year. Doubling the workforce would double this estimate. Conversely, it could be half or less if mining was a seasonal activity between agricultural priorities such as harvesting and seeding.The previously claimed production rates require improbable mining assumptions together with at least 500 dedicated full-time miners and a population in the thousands. Furthermore, it would yield per capita silver productivity more than four times higher than in well-documented Early Modern operations that were leading silver deposits of their time. This seems unlikely. However, even at the much lower production levels, favoured here, Melle still might have been a major factor in the Carolingian economy, with its lead production perhaps as important as its silver.

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“…Coulthard & Macklin, 2003; Dennis et al, 2009; Martín Duque José et al, 2015; Pavlowsky et al, 2017). Erosion of TSFs is a cumulative process that happens over decades or even centuries (Kincey et al, 2018; Knittel et al, 2005; Lecce & Pavlowsky, 2014). Moreover, pluvial and fluvial erosion of TSFs will almost certainly increase in coming years due to the intensification of precipitation and floods due to climate change (Prein et al, 2017; Tabari, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailings storage facilities flood exposure assessment using a 2D hydrodynamic model

Murillo

McIntyre

Cohen

et al. 2022

J Flood Risk Management

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Minimizing environmental pollution from Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) is one of the key goals of the mining sector. While much attention is given to risks from potential catastrophic failures of large TSFs, there is also a need to assess risks due to noncatastrophic but more frequent releases of contaminants. In response to this need, this article proposes a method for prioritizing TSFs in terms of flood exposure, based on flood maps produced by the Shallow Water Integrated Flood Tool. The method was implemented using a case study of a flood event in the Copiap o city region (Atacama, Chile). A sensitivity analysis was carried out to evaluate the influence of different model configurations and input parameters. The results showed that 10% of all the TSFs in the case study region were exposed to flood waters due to the fluvial dynamics of the Copiapo River. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis revealed that in the event of extreme local precipitation, capable of generating runoff, up to 88% of all the TSFs could have some degree of flood exposure. The results also suggest that flood simulations using satellite-derived terrain data at moderate resolution can be used for a preliminary large-scale assessment of TSF flood exposure. K E Y W O R D Scontaminated land, extreme events, mapping of flood hazards, SWIFT, TSFs

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Heavy Metal Pollution Downstream of Old Mining Camps as a Result of Flood Events: an Example from the Mulde River System, Eastern Part of Germany

Cited by 9 publications

References 3 publications

A Dynamic Model to Simulate Arsenic, Lead, and Mercury Contamination in the Terrestrial Environment During Extreme Floods of Rivers

A Dynamic Model to Simulate Arsenic, Lead, and Mercury Contamination in the Terrestrial Environment During Extreme Floods of Rivers

Geological and Mining Constraints on Historical Mine Production: The Case of Early Medieval Lead-Silver Mining at Melle, France

Tailings storage facilities flood exposure assessment using a 2D hydrodynamic model

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