Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11681/24386
Title: Suitability of dredged material for reclamation of surface-mined land : Ottawa, Illinois, Demonstration Project
Authors: Harrison, Wyman, 1931-
Van Luik, Abraham
Keywords: Reclamation of land--Illinois
Water quality--Illinois
Strip mining--Environmental aspects--Illinois
Publisher: Environmental Laboratory (U.S.)
U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station.
Series/Report no.: Technical Report;EL-80-7
Abstract: This study was conducted to monitor the impact upon water quality when using dredged material to reclaim coal-mine spoil. An area of severely degraded mine spoil near Ottawa, Illinois, was divided into four plots by dikes of spoil material covered with heavy plastic. The plots were arranged into a control plot of untreated mine spoil and three treatment plots that received a 0.9-m-thick cover of dredged material and two of these plots received applications of agricultural lime prior to placement of dredged material. The plots were instrumented with a Parshall flume to measure runoff, pressure-vacuum soil water samplers to collect water samples within the dredged material/mine spoil profile, and two wells in the vicinity of the plots to collect groundwater samples. Results included the following: a.) All plots of dredged material became thickly vegetated, whereas the control plot remained unvegetated. b.) Runoff and subsequent erosion were significantly reduced on the dredged material plots. c.) Runoff from the treatment plots was higher in pH and lower in dissolved constituents than runoff from the control plot. d.) No effect of lime could be demonstrated in the limed treatments. e.) Trace constituents and heavy metals were found but at sufficiently low levels in soil water to show that no trace or heavy metal toxic hazard existed in the dredged material. f.) Samples from the wells for monitoring groundwater were low in trace metals. These results show that the dredged material used in this study is a suitable material for reclaiming severely degraded mine spoil.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11681/24386
Appears in Collections:Technical Report

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