USE OF STEEL SLAG LEACH BEDS FOR THE TREATMENT OF ACID MINE DRAINAGE: THE McCARTY HIGHWALL PROJECT

摘要

Steel slag leach beds were constructed at the abandoned McCarty mine site in Preston County, West Virginia. The leach beds were constructed as slag check dams below limestone-lined settling basins. Acid water was captured in limestone channels and directed into basins to leach through the slag dams and discharge into a tributary of Beaver Creek. Since installation in October 2000, the system has been consistently producing net alkaline, pH 9.0 water. The water is still net alkaline and has stabilized at a neutral pH after the treated water encounters several other acidic seeps downstream. In addition, other than elevated Cr, which exceeds EPA water criteria for freshwater aquatics at the Beaver pond discharge, metals in the system effluent are within acceptable limits.