Documented Cases of Natural Wetlands Ameliorating Mine Drainage

The wetlands listed below ameliorate mine drainage to varying degrees. Some, such as the wetlands at Mount Washington or St. Kevin Gulch, do not improve the mine discharge to an acceptable degree. Others, like the wetlands at Star Lake or Birchtree Mine, are (were) actually used for treatment, and remove all the contaminants of concern.


Mine Location AMD Contaminants removed Reference
United Keno Hill Mines Yukon Territory, Canada No Zn Boyle, 1965
Unnamed coal mine West Virginia, USA Yes Fe, Mn Wieder and Lang, 1982
Mt. Washington British Columbia, Canada Yes As, Cu, Zn
(Limited)
Erickson and Deniseger, 1987
Kwong and Van Stempvoort, 1994
Carbonate Mountain Montana, USA Yes Al, Fe, Pb Dollhopf et al., 1988
Dunka Mine Minnesota, USA No Cu, Ni Eger and Lapakko, 1988
Star Lake, Jolu Mines Saskatchewan, Canada No Cu, cyanide Gormely, 1990
Natural wetlands at 35 coal mines Pennsylvania, USA Yes Al, Fe, Mn Stark, 1990
Unnamed coal mine Pennsylvania, USA Yes Fe, Mn Tarutis et al., 1992
Con Mine Northwest Territories, Canada No As, Cu, cyanide Ball, 1993
Quirke Mine Ontario, Canada No Fe, Ra-226 Davé, 1993
Ranger Mine Jabiru, Australia No U Noller et al., 1994
Woods and Noller, 1995
Tom's Gully Mine 100 km S.E. of Darwin, Australia No As, Cu, Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, U, Zn Noller et al., 1994
Woods and Noller, 1995
Hilton Mine Mt Isa, Queensland, Australia No Fe, Mn, Tl, Zn Jones and Chapman, 1995
Woodcutters Mine 80 km south of Darwin, Australia No Cd, Mn, Pb, U, Zn Noller et al., 1994
Woods and Noller, 1995
United Keno Hill Mines Yukon Territory, Canada No Zn Sobolewski, 1995
See also this page
Birchtree Mine Manitoba, Canada No Ni Hambley, 1996
St. Kevin Gulch Colorado, USA Yes Fe yes, Zn no Walton-Day, In Press
Cluff Lake
McLean Lake
Saskatchewan, Canada No U Len Sinclair, Saskatchewan Pollution Control, Prince Albert, SK. Personal Communication
Silver Queen British Columbia, Canada No Zn T.W. Higgs, H.A. Simons, Vancouver, B.C. Unpublished Observation


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Last modified Sunday, November 03, 1996 7:47:52 PM