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The Treatment of Pumped Minewater at Woolley Colliery, West Yorkshire
Author(s) -
Laine D. M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.1999.tb01020.x
Subject(s) - coal mining , settlement (finance) , drainage , wetland , environmental science , volume (thermodynamics) , mining engineering , hydrology (agriculture) , coal , archaeology , geography , engineering , geotechnical engineering , business , ecology , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , payment , biology
Woolley pumping station controls the level of underground minewater over about 100 km of abandoned coal workings in West Yorkshire. Pumping prevents the overflow of potentially contaminated minewater from many old drainage adits. On‐site treatment at the adits would be difficult because of land‐ownership problems, topographical constraints, and lack of capacity in adjacent watercourses. The treatment facilities at Woolley were adequate for the volume of minewater during the operational life of the colliery; however, a predicted 500% increase in volume made it essential to extend the plant if the consent standard was to be attained. The paper describes the options which were adopted, i.e. (a) improvements to the settlement ponds and cascades, (b) the use of cloth filters, and (c) the construction of a large wetland. Further research into the use of wetlands for the reduction of amm. N is now being carried out.