Pit Lakes Affected by a River Contaminated with Brines Originated from the Coal Mining Industry: Evolution of Water Chemistry in the Zakrzówek Horst Area (Krakow, Southern Poland)

Jacek Motyka, Kajetan d’Obyrn, Ondra Sracek, Adam Postawa and Michał Źróbek
Additional contact information
Jacek Motyka: Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Kajetan d’Obyrn: Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Ondra Sracek: Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, 17. listopadu 12, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Adam Postawa: Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Michał Źróbek: Faculty of Drilling, Oil and Gas, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 Av., 30-059 Krakow, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: Long-term coal mining activities in the Upper Silesia significantly affect the environment in southern Poland. Discharges of brines (with TDS reaching over 110 g/L) from mines are the main source of pollution of many rivers in Poland, including the Vistula River. The Zakrzówek horst is a small geological structure composed of the Upper Jurassic limestones. These limestones were exploited in several quarries. In the largest one (the “Zakrzówek” quarry), exploitation reached the depth of 36 m below the water table, i.e., about 32 m below the average water level in Vistula River which flows 700 m from the quarry. An important part of this inflow into quarries came from the contaminated Vistula River, with a chloride concentration over 2 g/L. The exploitation ceased in 1991, and dewatering ended in 1992. In the old quarry area, pit lakes appeared, which are unique because they present an example of a post-mining site affected by the riverine water contaminated with brines. Investigations of physicochemical parameters of water in the Zakrzówek area were carried out in the period of 1990–2020. Results showed that the largest pit lake was initially meromictic with a distinct stratification. After several years, holomictic conditions developed due to the surface layer freshening and convective mixing.

Keywords: coal mining brines; pit lakes; water chemistry; limestone quarry; Upper Jurassic limestones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4382/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4382/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:12:p:4382-:d:840012

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().