Eva Singovszka, Aneta Petrilakova, Magdalena Balintova, Marian Holub

The impact of mining activities on the sediment quality in water reservoir Ruzin I. (Slovakia)

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Abstract

The contaminationof aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems with heavy metals and other mining chemicals have been major environmental problems in manymining areas of the world. The peak period of metal mining was from the middle to late nineteenth century, although from many sites the pollution continues also at present. In such catchments, almost 90 per cent of the metals are associated rather with sediment than in aqueous forms, and the metal pollutants are primarily mobilised and transported downstream, and deposited in lakes or dams. Water reservoir Ruzin I. is situated in territory, which is well-known by its mining and metallurgical history for several centuries, such as ore deposit Smolnik. Surface water from this area is contaminated by acid mine drainage (AMD) outflowed from abandoned sulphide mine Smolnik. AMD with low value of the pH (about 3–4) is a result of chemical oxidation of sulphides and other chemical processes in mine. The pH increasing due to the mixture AMD with surface water is followed by metal precipitation and its sedimentation in water environment. Contaminated sediment is transported by erosion processes into the river Hnilecand then into water reservoir Ruzin. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chemical quality of the sediment influenced by the mining activities and to assess the present and future potential risks of acid mine drainage to the water reservoir Ruzin I. (Slovakia) by the enrichment factor and pollution load index.

Keywords: acid mine drainage; heavy metals; enrichment factor; water reservoir Ruzin; Slovakia.