Delineating Hazardous CO₂ Fluxes from Acid Mine Drainage

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

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1866-6280; 1866-6299

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2016 Springer Verlag, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Feb 2016

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS