Abstract
Combining environmental isotope analysis with principal component analysis can be an effective method to discriminate the inflows and sources of contamination in mining-affected watersheds. This paper presents a field-scale study conducted at an acid mine drainage (AMD)-contaminated site adjacent to a pyrite mine in South China. Samples of surface water and groundwater were collected to investigate transport in the vadose zone using stable isotopes of oxygen (δ18O) and hydrogen (δD) as environmental tracers. Principal component analysis of hydrogeochemical data was used to identify the probable sources of heavy metals in the AMD. The heavy metal pollution index (HPI) was applied to evaluate the pollution status of heavy metals in the groundwater. The groundwater associated with the Datai reservoir was recharged by atmospheric precipitation and surface water. On the side near the AMD pond, the groundwater was significantly affected by the soluble metals produced by pyrite oxidation. The concentrations of some metals (Al, Mn, and Pb) in all of the samples exceed the desirable limits prescribed by the World Health Organization (Guidelines for drinking-water quality, 4th edn. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2011). Among them, the concentration of Al is more than 30,000 times higher than the desirable limits prescribed by the World Health Organization (2011), and the concentration of Mn is more than 3000 times higher. The HPI values based on these heavy metal concentrations were found to be 10–1000 times higher than the critical pollution index value of 100. These findings provide a reference and guidance for research on the migration and evolution of heavy metals in vadose zone water in AMD-contaminated areas.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41807193, 41830753) and the Guangdong Provincial Key Research Program of Universities (2019KZDXM054). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, resulting in substantial improvements over an earlier version of the manuscript.
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Yu Liu involved in in situ investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, and funding acquisition. Lezhang Wei involved in in situ investigation and data curation. Qinghua Wu involved in in situ investigation and writing—review and editing. Dinggui Luo involved in in situ investigation, writing—review and editing, and Supervision. Tangfu Xiao involved in conceptualization, in situ investigation, and writing—review and editing. Qihang Wu involved in methodology and writing—review and editing. Xuexia Huang involved in methodology and resources. Juan Liu involved in methodology and writing—review and editing. Jin Wang involved in methodology and writing—review and editing. Ping Zhang involved in writing—review and editing.
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Liu, Y., Wei, L., Wu, Q. et al. Impact of acid mine drainage on groundwater hydrogeochemistry at a pyrite mine (South China): a study using stable isotopes and multivariate statistical analyses. Environ Geochem Health 45, 771–785 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01242-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01242-8