Building upon the highly successful mine water research programme operating at Newcastle University since 1992, and drawing on the major achievements of the Coal Authority’s national rolling programme of mine water remediation, the CoSTaR (Coal Mine Sites for Targeted Remediation Research) research facility was established in the heart of the once-great Northern Coalfield by the Hydrogeochemical Engineering Research & Outreach (HERO) Group at Newcastle University, the Coal Authority, Durham and Northumberland Councils and CL:AIRE.
CoSTaR is composed of a ‘constellation’ of six established mine water remediation sites which have been selected to provide at least one example of each of the principal types of passive systems currently used to treat polluted mine waters at numerous sites in North America and Europe:
- Aerobic reed beds treating non-acidic waters with high iron contents at the St Helen Auckland, Whittle and Acomb sites;
- Compost wetlands treating acidic waters at the Quaking Houses site;
- Reducing and Alkalinity Producing System (RAPS) ie vertical flow compost/limestone ioreactors at the Bowden Close site;
- Permeable reactive barrier at the Shilbottle site;
- Hybrid active / passive system at the Acomb site.
Nowhere else in the world is such a complete array of passive treatment systems available within such a small geographical area: all six constituent sites of CoSTaR lie within 30 miles of central Newcastle.
Key issues in the longevity of these systems relate to the rate at which carbon – and other key elements – are cycled, and to the rate at which (metalliferous) sediment accumulates within passive units.
CoSTaR is ideally suited to unravelling the nature and rates of the controlling processes. The concept is to ensure that baseline performance data are collected for all six systems, so that researchers undertaking specific investigations and experiments on the sites are able to place their findings within the overall context of treatment efficiency, thus ensuring the practical relevance of the research.
Publication
CL:AIRE Site Bulletin 3 - Coal Mine Sites for Targeted Remediation Research: The CoSTaR initiative
CoSTaR is an EU Access to Research Infrastructure project (Contract: RITA-CT-2003-506069)