How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques? Jim Gusek, PE 1 4/14/2016 How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques? Jim Gusek, P.E. Sovereign Consulting Inc. Lakewood, Colorado ROCKY MOUNTAIN WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION SEMINAR APRIL 14, 2016 - GOLDEN, COLORADO Outline • Gold King Site • Passive Treatment Biogeochemistry • Conceptual Gold King Passive Treatment Design(s) • Source Control Concepts
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How could the Gold King Mine be treated with passive treatment
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How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 1
4/14/2016
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive
treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, P.E.Sovereign Consulting Inc.
Lakewood, Colorado
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION SEMINAR APRIL 14, 2016 - GOLDEN, COLORADO
Outline
• Gold King Site• Passive Treatment Biogeochemistry• Conceptual Gold King Passive
Treatment Design(s)• Source Control Concepts
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 2
4/14/2016
The Gold King Site (1/3)
2 miles
US Bureau of Reclamation, 2015
The Gold King Site (2/3)
US Bureau of Reclamation, 2015
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 3
4/14/2016
The Gold King Site (3/3)
US Bureau of Reclamation, 2015
Mine Water Treatment Options
• Active (Treatment by “Brute Force” using chemicals, energy, labor, & infrastructure to produce clean water in the shortest time & smallest possible footprint)
• Passive (Treatment capitalizes on the low-energy
dynamics that Mother Nature employs at ambient temperatures)
• Combination active/passive (hybrids)
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 4
4/14/2016
“Natural” Attenuation
Mother Nature is pretty talented; to remediate heavy metals situations, She uses:
Sequential
Ecological
eXtraction
processes that have evolved over millennia (Thanks, C. Darwin)
What Is the Passive Treatment Process?
Passive Treatment of MIW involves the:
Sequential
Ecological
eXtraction
Of metals in a man-made but naturalistic bio-system
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 5
4/14/2016
Iron Stromatolites & Fe/Mn Nodules
Shark Bay, Australia
Fe/Mn Fossil Nodules Courtesy of Nick Shearer, WV DEP
Stromatolites built by cyanobacteria/algae, a
process over 1 billion yrs. old
www.terradaily.com
Ferricrete Deposits
Animas Basin, Colo.
Courtesy of USGS
Deposit of iron-cemented stream gravel (ferricrete) with embedded wood fragments
Natural Iron-rich Acidic Spring Flowing into
Cement Creek
Courtesy of USGS
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 6
4/14/2016
Manganocrete Deposits
Animas Basin, CO & Patagonia, AZ
Alluvial manganocrete near the former Lake
Emma in Eureka Gulch
MnO2-cemented alluvium in Alum Creek
Courtesy of USGS
“Volunteer” iron terrace at abandoned metal mine in Colorado near a drinking water reservoir
0.5 miles upstream of Georgetown, CO (just off Guanella Pass)
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 7
4/14/2016
Typical Wetland Ecosystem
Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB’s) live here (anoxic conditions)
(oxidizing conditions)
Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB’s) live here (anoxic conditions)
Oxidation and Reduction Processes in Competition
Acidithiobacillus - F. O. live here (oxidizing conditions)
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 8
4/14/2016
Maj
or
Min
or
Natural Metal Removal Mechanisms
• Sulfide and carbonate precipitation via sulfate reducing bacteria, et al.
• Hydroxide and oxide precipitation by acidithiobacillus ferro-oxidans bacteria, et al.
• Filtering of suspended materials and precips• Carbonate dissolution/replacement• Metal uptake into live roots, stems and
leaves• Adsorption and exchange with plant, soil and
other biological materials
?
Passive Treatment Chemistry 101
SO4-2 + 2 CH2O HS- + 2HCO3
- + H+
(Sulfate reduction and neutralization by bacteria)
Zn+2 + HS- ZnS (s) + H+
(Sulfide precipitation)
Fe+3 + 3 H2O Fe(OH)3 (s) + 3 H+
(Hydroxide precipitation)
H+ + CaCO3 Ca+2 + HCO3-
(Limestone dissolution)
REDUCING/ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS
OXIDIZING CONDITIONS
ALLCONDITIONS
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 9
4/14/2016
Aluminum Precipitation
Al3+ + 3H2O => Al(OH)3 (Gibbsite) + 3H+
(problematic due to sludge buildup)
Conditions within BCRs are favorable for aluminum hydroxysulfateprecipitation:
Bi-Polar LipidsNote: We need to consider the physics of delivering and distributing a weak bactericide solution into a porous, unsaturated medium.
Bacteria enhance pyrite oxidation rates ten-fold or more
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 28
4/14/2016
“Control of acid generation for prolonged periods greatly enhances reclamation
efforts and can reduce reclamation costs by reducing the amount of topsoil
needed to establish vegetation. Three natural processes resulting from strong
vegetative cover for three years or more can break the acid production cycle.
These processes are:
1. A healthy root system that competes for both oxygen and moisture with acid-
producing bacteria;
2. Populations of beneficial heterotrophic soil bacteria and fungi that are reestablished,
resulting in the formation of organic acids that are inhibitory to T. ferrooxidans (Tuttle
et al. 1977); and
3. The action of plant root respiration and heterotrophic bacteria increase CO2 levels in
the spoil, resulting in an unfavorable microenvironment for growth of T. ferrooxidans.”
ARD Prevention Concept is Not New
Sobek, A. A., D.A. Benedetti, & V. Rastogi. 1990.
IT’S ALL A MATTER OF TIMING
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?
Jim Gusek, PE 29
4/14/2016
Vaccination or Medication Concepts
Vaccination (Prevention) Medication (Mitigation)
Waste rock dumps at active mines (“sterilize” ARD rock by the truckload (or lift) before it is placed in the dump)
Small-scale “dog hole” abandoned underground mines that produce ARD
Active coarse coal refuse piles (sterilize refuse by adding a bactericide and/or “probiotic” in the feed hopper of a conveyor belt)
Waste rock dumps or coarse coal refuse facilities at abandoned mines (even if they are capped)
Active tailings storage facilities (sterilize the cycloned coarse tails (or paste) in the embankment – the material most likely to form ARD before capping and revegetation)
Abandoned underground mine stopes (use geophysics for targeting and inject bactericide and/or “probiotic” through bore holes or land applied on the surface with drip irrigation technology)
Active underground mine stopes (amend backfill materials)
Backfilled pits that are poorly capped (and then revegetate!)
The “Heat‐Seeking Missile” Effect in ARD Suppression
Pyrite oxidation is exothermic
Some reactants respond (positively) to acid
If a reactant mixture encounters a “hot zone” with elevated pyrite: the delivery media should collapse and preferentially
deposit the “active ingredients”, and/or
the active ingredient itself would preferentially coat the pyrite.
These features could potentially give some technologies a “heat-seeking missile” advantage that could automatically deliver more ARD-suppressing active ingredients in the zones where they are needed the most.
How could the Gold King Mine water be treated with passive treatment techniques?