THE EFFECT OF COAL MINING ON THE WATER QUALITY OF WATER SOURCES IN NIGERIA

Year 2019, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 251 - 260, 31.12.2019

Oloche Robert Ekwule Gabriel Delian Akpen George Moses Ugbede

Abstract

The
aim of this study is to investigate the effect of coal mining on the drinking
water quality of different water sources in Odagbo, Ankpa L.G.A., Kogi State,
Nigeria.  Five water samples each, were
collected during the dry season, inception of wet and peak wet seasons from the
community’s three water sources. Physico-chemical properties such as electrical
Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), turbidity, pH, hardness of the
water samples were analyzed. Heavy metal concentrations of the samples were
also determined. The result of the chemical characterization placed the
tailings in a semi-acidic group because 50% of its constituents oxides are of
weak acid, therefore making the tailings a potential source of Acid mine
drainage (AMD). The results for water quality test revealed that the values of EC,
TDS, chloride,  and sulphate for the
three water sources (pond, borehole and river) were within World Health
Organization (WHO) and Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) safe limits for
both the dry and wet seasons. The metallic levels of the metals studied were
relatively low in all the water samples during the dry season with copper,
chromium, manganese, cobalt, iron, lead and nickel not being detected. There
was a reasonable increase in concentration of heavy metals during the wet
seasons possibly as a result of AMD with metals like copper, chromium, cobalt
and nickel not detected. The pollution indices of all the water samples during
the sampled periods, exceeded the critical value of 100. The degrees of
pollution of all the sampled water descended in the order; pond > river >
borehole for all the seasons. Hence, borehole water is the best option for the
community’s consumption after lime treatment to correct its acidity level.

Keywords

Coal mining, water quality parameters, acid mine drainage, heavy metals

Supporting Institution

No form of grant was given during the period of this study

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