Assessment of Water Quality Indices of Some Opencast Mines

Abstract

Mining is the process of exploitation of ore from the earth crust. It is the primary industry in our country next to agriculture. Without mining no other industrialization is possible. For the development of any country it is needed that the deposits lying below ground has to be exploited economically. Minerals lying below earth crust have got no value, however it is of great importance once exploited so for industrialization mining of the deposits is must. These deposits are found some times very close to earth crust and sometimes at higher depth. While performing the mining activities different kinds of pollutants are generated, this mining activity generates air pollution,noise pollution, water pollution, landscape pollution and socio-economic problems at the surrounding areas. Many researchers have done the work based on these pollutions. Sometimes as suggestive measures closures of the mining activities are recommended, however instead of closing mining activities pollution control measures are considered to be the better choice. Though different kind of pollutions are generated by mining industries.but in this thesis emphasis is given on water pollution only.
In this project,water samples are taken from three different mining areas,viz. Samleshwari coal mine MCL, Rajhara iron ore mine SAIL, Dongri buzurg mine MOIL. This collected samples are analyzed in the laboratory for the determination of pH, Turbidity, Nitrate, TDS, Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand etc.It is observed that different types of diseases are very common in mining industry because of the consumption of this polluted water. Recommendation of World Health Organization (WHO) for the permissible limit of different parameters of different countries are studied in this work. I t is observed that the water quality of this mines are mostly within the permissible limits. It is recommended that water should be treated properly before use show that con commitment diseases due to water problems in the mining areas can be avoided