Reclamation, Remediation, Restoration

Remediation refers to the process of environmental cleanup of contaminated sites and the techniques to reduce or eliminate contamination from soil or groundwater.

Soil contamination is caused by the presence of man made chemicals in the natural soil environment. The most common chemicals involved in soil pollution are petroleum hydrocarbons, lead and other heavy metals. Soil contamination can also happen as a result of underground storage tanks rupturing or the leaching of waste from landfills. Mining, fertilizer application, oil and fuel dumping and a multitude of other environmental issues can cause pollution of the soil. Mining is a major cause of soil pollution. The pollution may be caused by mining for coal, gold, silver, copper,...

Remediation refers to the process of environmental cleanup of contaminated sites and the techniques to reduce or eliminate contamination from soil or groundwater.

Soil contamination is caused by the presence of man made chemicals in the natural soil environment. The most common chemicals involved in soil pollution are petroleum hydrocarbons, lead and other heavy metals. Soil contamination can also happen as a result of underground storage tanks rupturing or the leaching of waste from landfills. Mining, fertilizer application, oil and fuel dumping and a multitude of other environmental issues can cause pollution of the soil. Mining is a major cause of soil pollution. The pollution may be caused by mining for coal, gold, silver, copper, diamonds; milling; drilling for oil, gas. These mining activities are responsible for high concentration of heavy metals in the soil.

Mining has ravaged landscapes, contaminated water supplies, and contributed to the destruction of vital ecosystems. Without some form of remediation, a laundry list of potential damages to human and aquatic health are associated with abandoned mines. And the sheer number of extant abandoned mines can lead to a compounding of contamination sources. On top of all of this, many states in the western U.S. are experiencing unprecedented growth, leading to increased recreation on public lands and increased potential for exposure to dangerous contaminants from abandoned mines as a result.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies regulate the levels of contamination in order to protect the environment. Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act that was passed in 1980 to deal with abandoned hazardous waste sites. Through Superfund, the EPA finds those responsible for the contamination—known as potentially responsible parties (PRP)—and requires them to clean up the polluted soil or pay the cost of cleanup. Federal agencies estimate that approximately 500,000 abandoned mines and associated ore processing facilities exist across the United States. Of these, approximately 130 National Priorities List (NPL) or NPL-caliber sites covering more than a million acres are contaminated from past hard rock mining activities and are now undergoing cleanup led by the lead federal agencies or potentially responsible parties.

Mines remain among the most obvious scars on (and under) the landscape, as surface mining (sometimes called quarrying or opencast mining) requires the removal of topsoil (the fertile layer of soil and organic matter that is particularly valuable for agriculture) to get at the valuable rocks below. Even if the destruction of topsoil is the worst that happens, it can turn a productive landscape into a barren one, which is a kind of pollution. Most metals, for example, occur in rocky mixtures called ores, from which the valuable elements have to be extracted by chemical, electrical, or other processes. That leaves behind waste products and the chemicals used to process them, which historically were simply dumped back on the land. Since all the waste was left in one place, the concentration of pollution often became dangerously high. When mines were completely worked out, all that was left behind was contaminated land that couldn't be used for any other purpose.

Environmental contamination and degradation at mining sites commonly resulted from: Waste rock and beneficiation waste such as mill tailing piles often scattered in numerous surface impoundments; Mining influenced water, including contaminated surface water, groundwater, and seepage from former mine adits (openings); Waste in the form of slurry that was injected into abandoned coal mines; Waste sludge (often containing surfactants and flocculants) that was discharged into unlined lagoons, or Aerial deposition of heavy metals and other contaminants from ore processing activities.

A solution to the problem of soil contamination is soil remediation. After mining finishes, the mine area must undergo rehabilitation. The goal of the process is to restore the soil to its natural, pollution-free state. The biggest concern associated with soil contamination is the harm it can cause to human health. There are significant health risks involved with direct contact with contaminated soil, the vapors from the contaminants and even secondary contamination of water supplies.

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