WATER AND SOIL QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF TALCHER COALFIELD AREAS

Abstract

The study has been carried out to assess the impact of mining activities on the water and soil quality in the Taicher coalfield areas. Various physico-chemical parameters have been considered for the determination of the water quality and concentrations of various trace elements in soil shall be determined. The water samples were collected in two batches in the months of September,2012 and January,2013 from twenty locations which included eighteen groundwater samples from the wells and tube-wells, the other two being collected from the two rivers of Brahmani and Nandira flowing through the study area. The soil samples were collected from the various locations of the study area. The various physico-chemical parameters considered for the determination of water quality are pH, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, concentration of major cations and anions measured through Ion Chromatography; the trace elements concentrations were determined by ICP-MS. The Water Quality Index was determined for the water samples with respect to the six parameters of alkalinity, TDS, hardness, Ca 1+ , Mg'+ and Cl - Approximately 80% of the samples were found to be unfit for drinking though they were good for irrigation purposes. The contamination of soil was determined by the geo-accumulation index. The soils are contaminated with arsenic and lead