A Periodic Table of Passive Treatment for Mining-Influenced Water-Revisited, IMWA 2013

Publish Date

August 05, 2013

Type

Publications

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Gusek_PeriodicTableofPassiveTreatment_IMWA2013.pdf

URL

http://www.imwa.info/docs/imwa_2013/IMWA2013_Gusek_459.pdf

Authored by James J. Gusek, PE, Sovereign Consulting Inc. Lakewood, CO branch office. Abstract: The technical community of regulators and engineers that specializes in passive water treatment design understands that each source of mining-influence water (MIW) has its unique signature, either imposed by the natural geochemical conditions of the ore body and surrounding mine waste, or by resource recovery processes. A passive treatment "decision tree" approach to generic design has been generally accepted in various forms. However, the complexity of MIW lead to the introduction of a "Periodic Table of Passive Treatment" (Gusek 2009) as a useful design tool to satisfy the need to embrace a larger range of MIW chemistries. This paper revisits the concept to include the effects of adsorption and other passive treatment mechanisms.