Skip to main content
Article
Delineating Hazardous CO₂ Fluxes from Acid Mine Drainage
Environmental Earth Sciences
  • Kwame Awuah-Offei, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Sisi Que
  • Moagabo Mathiba
Abstract

Incidents of hazardous accumulations of CO2 in homes built on or near reclaimed mine land, in the last decade, have been shown to be linked to neutralization reactions between acidic mine drainage and carbonate material. Recent research has shown that CO2 fluxes on reclaimed mine land with this hazard are, sometimes, spatially autocorrelated (i.e., the spatial variability is not random). This result implies geostatistics can be used to delineate hazardous areas where fluxes are likely to exceed established thresholds. This study applies sequential Gaussian simulation to delineate this emerging hazard on a site in southwestern Indiana, USA. Due to lack of regulatory threshold limits for CO2 flux at the current time, the authors conduct a sensitivity analysis of the threshold limit using the 75th, 90th and 95th percentiles of the measured fluxes for the first day of monitoring. These limits are used to produce hazard maps, which are validated with the known hazard at the site. This work further shows the potential of surface CO2 flux monitoring as a cheap and effective strategy to monitor and delineate such hazards to avoid residential and commercial real estate development in high risk zones.

Department(s)
Mining Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
  • Drainage,
  • Hazards,
  • Reclamation,
  • Regional planning,
  • Sensitivity analysis,
  • Acid mine drainage,
  • Acidic mine drainage,
  • Carbonate materials,
  • Mine reclamation,
  • Neutralization reaction,
  • Real estate development,
  • Regulatory thresholds,
  • Sequential Gaussian simulation,
  • Carbon dioxide,
  • Acid mine drainage,
  • Carbon dioxide,
  • Carbon flux,
  • Flux measurement,
  • Gaussian method,
  • Hazard assessment,
  • Reclaimed land,
  • Residential development,
  • Sensitivity analysis,
  • Indiana,
  • United States,
  • CO2 fluxes,
  • Hazard delineation
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 Springer Verlag, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
2-1-2016
Publication Date
01 Feb 2016
Disciplines
Citation Information
Kwame Awuah-Offei, Sisi Que and Moagabo Mathiba. "Delineating Hazardous CO₂ Fluxes from Acid Mine Drainage" Environmental Earth Sciences Vol. 75 Iss. 3 (2016) ISSN: 1866-6280; 1866-6299
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kwame-awuah-offei/51/