Deep Monitoring Wells in Thick Mine Spoils
Deep Monitoring Wells in Thick Mine Spoils
Presented on Thursday, December 1, 2011
Approximately 100,000 acres of land are disturbed by mining each year. The hydrology of mine spoil is important for predicting mine flooding problems, evaluating mining economics in adjacent active mining areas, and predicting the quality of water that will drain from saturated portions of the spoil. Installing monitoring wells in this environment is challenging because of differential settlement, lack of compaction, and heterogeneous matrix of the spoil, which can contain from clay-sized particles to boulders. This presentation will cover mine spoil hydrology, and considerations for installing monitoring wells to successfully monitor ground water in thick spoil and valley fills.
Presenter:
David R. Wunsch, Ph.D., PG
National Ground Water Association, Westerville, OH
National Ground Water Association, Westerville, OH
Wunsch has previously served as a Congressional Science fellow, most directly with the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources as the coordinator of the coalfield hydrology program at the Kentucky Geological Survey and as a geology instructor at Central Michigan University.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Kentucky, and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College.