Mechanisms of water-rock interaction and implications for remediating flooded mine workings elucidated from environmental tracers, stable isotopes, and rare earth elements.

ABSTRACT: Contamination from acid mine drainage affects ecosystems and usability of groundwater for domestic and municipal purposes. The Captain Jack Superfund Site outside of Ward, Boulder County, Colorado, USA, hosts a draining mine adit that was remediated through emplacement of a hydraulic bulkhead to preclude acid mine drainage from entering nearby Lefthand Creek. During impoundment of water within the mine workings in 2020, a diverse and novel dataset of stable isotopes of water, sulfate, and carbon (δ2H, δ18OH2O, δ18OSO4, δ34S, δ13CDIC), rare earth elements, and environmental tracers (noble gases and tritium) were collected to understand groundwater recharge and mixing, mechanisms of sulfide oxidation and water-rock interaction, and the influence of remediation on the hydrologic and geochemic

SUBMITTER: Newman CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10631561 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature