The Collection and Management of Environmental Data at Mine Sites
The impact of mining development on the environment can be minimized through comprehensive planning, careful construction and accurate monitoring. Key to meeting these objectives is the acquisition of accurate information at all stages of design, development, operation and decommissioning.
This paper will describe cost-effective means of gathering and managing reliable field data for characterizing the groundwater flow and surface water regime within and surrounding the mine site, assessing the migration of localized contaminant plumes associated with mine operations, and monitoring groundwater and surface water quality.
Recent research has led to the development of inexpensive, easy to install systems, which allow water sampling/monitoring from
different zones within a single borehole.
Advances in electronic miniaturization have developed small diameter probes and pumps for measuring water levels and taking water samples. Data from continuous monitoring stations in remote areas can be collected automatically using dataloggers and
downloaded from a central facility using telemetry systems powered by direct, battery or solar sources and operating using radio
frequency, landline or cellular telephones, and satellite.
Two case studies will illustrate the use of dataloggers and telemetry in a large scale basin wide monitoring scheme and the use of multilevel samplers for managing a contaminant plume.
Mots Clés:
surface water, Groundwater, Monitoring, Telemetry, Sampling, Case studies, Water quality
