Steel slag leach beds are designed to use a waste product from the steel industry, slag, to add alkalinity to clean water before being mixed with acid mine drainage. In Southern Ohio, steel slag leach beds utilizing slag from electric arc furnaces are a popular method for treating acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines. In Raccoon Creek Watershed in Ohio, six steel slag leach beds have been constructed in the last year. Three of these, Forest, Meade and Kern Hollow, discharge into the same reach of the East Branch of Raccoon Creek. While the discharge pH of each of these beds averages between 10 and 12, the corresponding alkalinity is not as high as the design assumptions. Additionally, heavy precipitation of calcium carbonate downstream from the steel slag leach bed discharges quickly reduces the alkalinity addition provided by these systems. While the design discharge alkalinity is 1000 mg/L, no alkalinity was measured over 200 mg/L in this study. While steel slag leach beds can be an effective means of treating acid mine drainage, the carbonate concentration of the feed water and the distance between the slag bed discharge and the acidic water will dictate the effectiveness of treatment.
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Author Name: Natalie Kruse, Stephen Ferrante, Brian Blair, Amy Mackey
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Keywords: Raccoon Creek; Alkalinity; Passive Treatment
ISSN: 2169-642X
EISSN: 2169-6438
EOI/DOI:
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