Soil and Water Quality Monitoring in Opencast Mines

Abstract

The opencast mining deteriorates the environment in numerous ways. One of the aspects of environment, it harms the most to the Soil and Water. Thus, estimation of quality of Soil and Water is extremely important for proper assessment of the associated hazards. Due to the lack of proper planning and negligence of regulations, an appreciable amount of environmental degradation and ecological damage to Soil and Water occurs. The soil samples are collected from the Bolani Iron Ore Mines. 8 samples of soil are collected and analysed for the parameters like pH (5-6.5 acidic in nature), organic carbon, soil nitrogen (0-280 kg/ha which is low quantity), calcium, magnesium, potassium and sulphur (22.4-44.8 kg/ha.) of soil. The water samples are collected from Bisra stone lime mine and analyzed for various physical, chemical, metallic and organic parameters were found which included determination of turbidity (23-32 NTU), conductivity, solids, iron, chromium content, pH, hardness (154-159 mg/L, mild hard), ammonia, nitrate, sulphate, phenol, fluoride, phosphate and organic parameters of importance such as Dissolved oxygen, Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand. Hence all the parameters of soil and water are compared, the soil is more polluted than water. So for control the soil and water pollution it is suggested that appropriate steps must be taken by the industry, State Pollution Control Board and the Government to prevent pollution of soil and water. Implementation of preventive measures proposed can be helpful to a great extent.