Effectiveness of Shaanbei Loess on Treatment of Wastewaters from Coal Mine

Untreated disposal of coal mine wastewaters from Shanbei loess have environmental and public health concerns in the developing Shanbei Loess Plateau, Northwest China. An in-situ experiment was conducted in the easily accessible loess to study their efficiency in removal of pollutants. Approximately 565L of wastewater was used in the test, which lasted 333min. Loess samples were collected at 5 discrete depths, 0.2m, 0.4m, 0.6m, 1m, and 1.5m from the surface before, at the end of, and 20 days after the infiltration test. Pollutants commonly found in wastewaters were analyzed for all the loess samples. The test indicates the loess is more effective for Cd and Pb.