Special Issue "Modelling and Assessment of the Fate and Transport of Metals in Mine and Municipal Effluent Receiving Waters"

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Christian Gagnon
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
St.Lawrence Center, Environment & Climate Change Canada, Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: fate and exposure of metals in wastewaters

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Municipal and mining effluents represent large sources of metals released to the aquatic environment. Metals are significantly present in municipal effluents, and a number of relatively small industrial plants release metals directly into municipal sewer systems. Mining activities are well-recognized sources of metals to the aquatic environment when they are leached from recent and historical tailings. Acid mine drainage is an issue for the mining industry worldwide. Emerging metal uses, such as the growing production of engineered metal-based nanomaterials, may represent additional metal sources, following their transformation, to the environment where their environmental risk remains to be assessed.

Predicting the environmental impact of the metals contained in those effluent discharges requires an understanding of how their physical and chemical characteristics, and those of the effluent receiving waters, affect metal uptake by aquatic organisms and metal toxicity. As the biological availability of metals is influenced by their speciation, chemical associations of metals are key to assessing the mobility and equilibrium of metal forms. Methods to predict metal bioavailability and toxicity are either by direct measurement such as in electrochemistry and chromatography or using models such as MINEQL or WHAM. These models are based on chemical equilibrium constants to predict how water chemistry modifies forms of the metal and how its toxicity changes, and their results are often validated by controlled exposure experiments using testing animals.

Dr. Christian Gagnon
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wastewater
  • bioavailability
  • metals
  • sediment
  • fate
  • speciation
  • mine tailings
  • transformation

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
A Multidisciplinary Approach for the Assessment of Origin, Fate and Ecotoxicity of Metal(loid)s from Legacy Coal Mine Tailings
Toxics 2021, 9(7), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9070164 - 10 Jul 2021
Viewed by 501
Abstract
Over the course of history, the development of human societies implied the exploitation of mineral resources which generated huge amounts of mining wastes leading to substantial environmental contamination by various metal(loid)s. This is especially the case of coal mine tailings which, subjected to [...] Read more.
Over the course of history, the development of human societies implied the exploitation of mineral resources which generated huge amounts of mining wastes leading to substantial environmental contamination by various metal(loid)s. This is especially the case of coal mine tailings which, subjected to weathering reactions, produce acid mine drainage (AMD), a recurring ecological issue related to current and past mining activities. In this study, we aimed to determine the origin, the fate and the ecotoxicity of metal(loid)s leached from a historical coal tailing heap to the Beuveroux river (Franche-Comté, France) using a combination of mineralogical, chemical and biological approaches. In the constitutive materials of the tailings, we identified galena, tetrahedrite and bournonite as metal-rich minerals and their weathering has led to massive contamination of the water and suspended particles of the river bordering the heap. The ecotoxicity of the AMD has been assessed using Chironomus riparius larvae encaged in the field during a one-month biomonitoring campaign. The larvae showed lethal and sub-lethal (growth and emergence inhibition and delay) impairments at the AMD tributary and near downstream stations. Metal bioaccumulation and subcellular fractionation in the larvae tissues revealed a strong bioavailability of, notably, As, Pb and Tl explaining the observed biological responses. Thus, more than 70 years after the end of mining operations, the coal tailings remain a chronic source of contamination and environmental risks in AMD effluent receiving waters. Full article
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: A multidisciplinary approach for the assessment of origin, fate and ecotoxicity of metal(loid)s from legacy coal mine tailings
Authors: Honorine Gauthier-Manuel 1, Diane Radola 1, Flavien Choulet 1, Martine Buatier 1, Raphaël Vauthier 2, Walter Chavanne 3, Frédéric Gimbert 1*
Affiliation: 1 UMR CNRS 6249 Chrono-Environnement, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 13 route de Gray, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France 2 Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels de Franche-Comté, Maison de l'environnement de Franche-Comté, 7 rue Voirin, 25000 Besançon, France 3 Granulats De Franche Comté, 10 rue de Franche-Comté - Bât C, 25480 Ecole-Valentin, France
Abstract: Over the course of history, the development of human societies implied the exploitation of mineral resources but at the same time generated huge amounts of mining wastes leading to substantial environmental contamination by various metal(loid)s. This is especially the case of coal mine tailings which, subjected to weathering reactions, produce acid mine drainage (AMD), a recurring ecological issue related to current and past mining activities. In this study, we aimed to determine the origin, the fate and the ecotoxicity of metal(loid)s leached from a historical coal tailing heap to the Beuveroux river (Franche-Comté, France) using a combination of mineralogical, chemical and biological approaches. In the constitutive materials of the tailings, we identified galena, tetrahedrite and bournonite as metal-rich minerals whose weathering has led to massive contamination of the water and suspended particles of the river bordering the heap. The ecotoxicity of the AMD has been assessed using Chironomus riparius larvae encaged in the field during a one-month biomonitoring campaign. The larvae showed lethal and sub-lethal (growth and emergence inhibition and delay) impairments at the AMD tributary and near downstream stations. Metal bioaccumulation and subcellular fractionation in the larvae tissues reveal a strong bioavailability of, notably, As, Pb and Tl explaining the observed biological responses. Thus, more than 70 years after the end of mining operations, the coal tailings remain a chronic source of contamination and environmental risks in AMD effluent receiving waters.

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