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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Study of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities exposed to buckeye reclamation landfill drainage wastes

Conference ·
OSTI ID:455307
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (United States)
  2. DynCorp, Cincinnati, OH (United States)
The Buckeye Reclamation Landfill (BRL), a Superfund site, incorporates approximately 50 acres of a 658 acre tract of land. The BRL consists of past underground mining voids, including some surface-mined lands, and mine refuse piles from processed bituminous coal. The area was subsequently used as a nonhazardous public and municipal solid waste landfill, and industrial sludge and liquid wastes were also deposited in an impoundment in the northern section of the landfill. The entire landfill area was completely covered with soil and revegetated in the late 1980`s and early 1990`s. The BRL produces acidic and highly mineralized drainage causing a widespread problem of serious mine drainage pollution in the watershed. A study was undertaken to assess the exposure of pollutants to the macroinvertebrate assemblages and to determine the extent of pollution of the BRL watershed. Samples were collected from ten sites in 1995. Nine systematic and spatial transect samples were taken at each collection site for macroinverbrates with a 595 {micro}m mesh, modified kick net from riffle/run and glide/pool habitats of streams above and below the BRL watershed. All macroinverbrates were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. The levels for total Zn ranged from 22--604 {micro}g/L; pH ranged from 4.4 to 8.1. The data distinguished the exposed sites receiving landfill leachates and sedimentation runoff from the less impacted sites.
OSTI ID:
455307
Report Number(s):
CONF-961149--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English