Landscape-Scale Mining and Water Management in a Hyper-Arid Catchment: The Cuajone Mine, Moquegua, Southern Peru

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study investigated the effect of mining and agriculture activities on the water quality in a hyper-arid catchment, and the related water management approaches were also discussed. In general, the data were sufficient and the discussion is interesting. Here are some suggestions for the authors:

1. Tables in the manuscript should be revised according to the requirement of the journal. A three-line table could be adopted.

2. For Figure 1, it might not be appropriate to use distance from site 1 as the X-axis, for some of the bars were overlapped. The resolution of Fig. 3 and Fig. 8 should be improved. In Fig. 9, SO₄ should be SO₄^2-. Analysis should be avoided in the captions of Figure 3.

3. There are some blankness in the manuscript, and should be deleted.

4. The conclusion of the manuscript was too long.

5. The scientific significance of the study should be discussed deeply, by pointing out the novelty of the statistical methods or the guiding significance in water resource management of this study.

6. Elevation in Table 1 should be replaced by attitude.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Landscape-Scale Mining and Water Management in a Hyper-Arid Catchment: The Cuajone Mine, Moquegua, Southern Peru.

This research highlights the importance of scientific input in understanding the complex interactions between mining, urban development, agriculture, environmental contamination and climate change. Understanding these interactions is critical to developing sustainable resource management and environmental protection strategies in mining-affected regions. This research highlights the complexity of the impacts of increased mining on the environment and human communities and attempts to identify strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences. This is an important issue to discuss but still I have some proposals to improve the presentation of this investigation.

Abstract:

This part is giving enough information about the investigation but some lines are little bit hard to follow. (For example)

Line 9-12 sentence stats with Impact mitigation …. the sentence overstates the attempt to locate the exact place in so much detail that a reader who does not know the surroundings can easily get lost trying to understand the meaning what author meant to say. Also the next sentence Line 12 -14 starts with location but immediately after the comma, the authors move on to the conclusions that their investigation points to, it seems as if the first part of the sentence obscures the intention that the author continued in the second part of the sentence. Maybe longer sentences should be simplified a bit or formatted more clearly.

Introduction

The general aim of this paper is to establish geogenic and anthropogenic determinants of water chemistry in the Torata river sub-catchment and lower Moquegua River, lying in a hyper-arid region in southern Peru. This introduction is effectively structured, providing a comprehensive overview of the critical environmental factors and their implications for sustainable development. But have to say that the manuscript is presented in a well-structured manner?  However, the cited references are not the most recent publications just few of them maybe two are from the last year and all the rest are from late nineties and early 2000 and some years. Maybe it could be cited some more recent researches in that area regarding that topic.  At least those relevant for environmental issues and heavy metal pollution. One reference from 2023 and one from 2022 all the rest were dated from 80, 70, a d significant amount from 00-2015.

Material and methods

I am satisfied to find very good explanation of the study site which give more detail information about sample collection, GPS coordinates in table 1, altitude, TDS Oxygen potential and etc. However, the subsection “sample collection” indicate that this section is telling more information about sample collection and not frame time when it was undertaken. Maybe a better subtitle would be more appropriate.

Figure 3 – The title of the figure maybe the title of the picture should be described as something that describes what is on the figure and briefly describe the most important points or statistical data, the second sentence in which some conclusion is made should be somewhere in the text of the discussion or the body of the text below the picture.

Discussion

Line 679: “This study has shown significant seasonal variability in the levels of Al, Fe, Mn and As at any one site at any one time, making it hard to determine the social and economic cost associated with potentially harmful hydrochemistry”.  Please check this statement, maybe there is an error in the statement, whether the statement is confirmed or negative; are you using any or every site and time…??? Clarify please

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I enjoyed reading the manuscript „Landscape-Scale Mining and Water Management in a Hyper-Arid Catchment: The Cuajone Mine, Moquegua, Southern Peru”.

The general aim of this paper was to establish geogenic and anthropogenic determinants of water chemistry in the Torata river sub-catchment and lower Moquegua river.  The Authors showed that during the research period, that the mine activities did not have a negative impact on water qualities necessary for aquatic life. The data indicate the impact of the Torata rural settlement and associated agricultural land under the Cuajone mine. Geochemical impacts are also documented below the city of Moquegua in the Moquegua river, and also below the confluence of the Sajena and Torata with the Moquegua river. The Authors stated that the need for further investigation into the significance of both mine operations and water management strategies, including catchment transfer projects, for water resources and environmental integrity. The paper has interesting results and is properly presented in the context of a scientific problem. The material is presented appropriately and clearly.

I do not propose any substantial comments.I only suggest adding information about precipitation. It is not sufficient to state "line 145 – "Hyper-arid regions are characterized by long periods of very low precipitation [18]." – please provide the amount of precipitation and briefly characterize this issue.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf