Adverse effects of mining pollutants on terrestrial and aquatic environment and its remediation

• Published in: Environmental quality management 2024-07, Vol.33 (4), p.595-610
• Main Authors: Talukder, Pratik, Ray, Rajarshi, Sarkar, Mainak, Das, Anirban, Chakraborty, Srishti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic environment; Bioaccumulation; Biological magnification; biomagnification; ecosystem; Ecosystems; Effluents; Environmental degradation; Environmental effects; Environmental impact; Environmental management; Environmental quality; Landslides; Mining; remediation; Rigidity; Side effects; Soil layers; Soil water; Soils; Toxic substances
• ISSN: 1088-1913; 1520-6483
• DOI: 10.1002/tqem.22121

One of the biggest threats faced in the present world is environmental degradation and pollution which is caused by an increase in the concentration of toxic substances which leads to the destruction of the ecosystem which gets exposed to those particles, it also leads to the loss of ecosystems because when these toxic particles seep into soil or water bodies, the life forms or the habitat which depend on it gets affected by the effluents hence leading to adverse effects, biomagnification and even death which dismantles the entire ecosystem. In this article, we will be discussing the effects on the environment caused by mining activities which are highly detrimental to the area in which it is done. Mining involves breaking down the soil layer into depths to extract various minerals and geological substances which in turn destroys the environment which gets exposed to it. As machinery is used they destroy the soil layer completely hence resulting in erosion of the area completely rendering it useless for any vegetation to grow. Apart from these by‐products and effluents which are released from the mining sites when seeps into nearby soil and water bodies can be very much detrimental to the respective ecosystem there. Moreover, the loosening of soil destroys its rigidity hence landslides can occur which is deadly. Thus to control all that, preventive measures need to be taken to improvise the mining activity in such a way that dangers of environmental degradation can be minimized as much as possible. Therefore this paper deals with the environmental impacts of mining activities along with remedial measures to control the toxic concentration from the sites (Chaney, 1991).