International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140

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International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ibiod

Vegetation recovery and groundwater pollution control of coal gangue

field in a semi-arid area for a field application
Baiwei Liu a, b, Zhonghua Tang a, Shaogang Dong c, *, Lixin Wang c, Dongwei Liu c
a
School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
b
Social Sciences Department of Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China
c
School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper studied the impact of a gully-type gangue dump in the Daliuta mine area, Shaanxi, China on
Received 25 October 2016 the groundwater environment and its contamination control. Multiple methods including eco-
Received in revised form hydrogeological survey, soil column leaching test, field test and groundwater flow analysis were
10 January 2017
applied in the study. According to the field survey, the stack of gangue had changed the original feature of
Accepted 16 January 2017
Available online 24 January 2017
groundwater flow system, with the groundwater level of the gangue field raising about 1e3 m compared
with the condition before the establishment of gangue dump. The long-term immersion of gangue had
released various harmful substance into the groundwater and affected the downstream areas. The
Keywords:
Coal gangue
leaching test showed that the loess could significantly purify the mine wastewater by increasing pH
Groundwater pollution value from 4.5 to 6.2e6.7 and absorbing heavy metals. Based on the loess column test, two loess
Leaching test permeable reactive barriers (LPRBs) were established in situ to improve the groundwater environment of
Loess gangue field. Besides, the vegetation restoration had been successfully carried out by covering a 30 cm-
Loess permeable reactive barrier (LPRB) thick loess layer on the coal gangues and planting Alfalfa and Artemisica ordosica to improve the
Vegetation recovery ecological environment, and the vegetation coverage had increased from 10% in 2008 to about 65% in
2013.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction produces large amounts of mine wastewater and gangue leachate,

The migration and transformation of pollutants in groundwater
are affected by the water-rock interaction (Olaka et al., 2016), mi-
crobial action (Maizel et al., 2016; Cesar and Ro
s, 2013; Li et al.,
2014; Da Silva and Corseuil, 2012; Souza et al., 2009), and human
activities (Da Silva and Bonotto, 2015; Fabro et al., 2015) among
others. The coal resource is rich in China and has been the main
energy for a long time. However, coal mining can cause negative
impacts on the regional environment. The change in coal mine geo-
ecological environment is a result of human activities that destroy
the system construction and function (Davis et al., 2010; Cherry
et al., 2001; Moldovan et al., 2008; Sasamoto et al., 2004). There
are three main impacts of coal mine development on the envi-
ronment, including changing the groundwater flow system, dis-
turbing the soil and causing ecological degradation. Coal mining
* Corresponding author. School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia
University, Hohhot, No.235 West College Road, Hohhot, 010021, China.
E-mail address: groundwater@163.com (S. Dong).
which can be acidic and contain high concentrations of sulfide and
heavy metals (Gibert et al., 2011; Miao et al., 2012); the uncon-
trolled discharge of mine water could degrade the water quality of
the receiving water body (Nordstrom, 2011). Ao and Huang (2005)
found that the Wuda mining gangue dump of Inner Mongolia has
been heavily polluted as evidenced by the lower pH value and high
concentration of SO2
4 in the surface water around the gangue
dump. The coal mine wastewater and coal gangue leachate can
discharge harmful heavy metals, radioactive elements, polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons and other organic pollutants, which may
cause hydrogeochemical reactions and consequently significant
increase of TDS and hardness in groundwater, pollution of soil and
deterioration of ecological environment (Sydnor and Redente,
2002; Gomo and Vermeulen, 2014; Khalil et al., 2013). High level
of acidity and heavy metals in coal gangue field are regarded as key
factors limiting plant growth and vegetation restoration (Chadwick,
1973). Currently, CaO or CaCO3 are commonly used to regulate the
pH of the mine water and soak solution of coal gangue, and
appropriate plants are known to be able to stabilize or extract
heavy metals in soils (Marseille et al., 2000). Therefore, how to

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibiod.2017.01.032
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 B. Liu et al. / International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140
remove heavy metals and select suitable species for ecological
restoration has been one of the hot issues in ecological restoration
research and practice in coal gangue fields.
This study analyzed the effect of the establishment of loess
permeable reactive barriers (LPRB) and the pavement of a loess
layer for vegetation recovery in the Daliuta mine area, Shaanxi,
China. Multiple methods, such as eco-hydrogeological survey, lab-
oratory and field experiments as well as groundwater pollution
treatment were applied.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sites information
Daliuta coal mine is located on the north of Shaanxi province.
This area is a transition zone of Maowusu sandland and loess hill,
which belongs to Yanhe stratum of Erdos section of North China
formation. The studied gangue field is surrounded by active, fixed
and semi-fixed sand dunes and is located in a valley 4.8 km away
from the Wulanmulun River in the east. The unconfined aquifer of
this area consists of Quaternary residual sand, aeolian sand and
lacustrine silty-fine sand (Fig. 1). The mean annual rainfall is
440.8 mm, 71% of which falls from June to September every year.
The total evaporation is 2163 mm per year.
2.2. The investigation of the gangue field
The Gangue field is surrounded by 10e40 m high sand dunes.
The Neogene mudstone aquiclude is under Quaternary aeolian
sand. The gangue field has been stacked since April 2003. The field
has been piled up with 2.5  106 m3 gangue reaching the height of
20 m on average until February 2007. The characteristics of
groundwater flow have been changed by the gangue dumps in the
valley. The valley as the local discharge channel of unconfined
water before the gangue being stacked, receives recharge in rainy
seasons and phreatic water occasionally. Since waste rocks were
piled, the evaporation receded greatly, and the discharge of
groundwater into the valley from sides stored in pores of coal
gangue. At the same time, precipitation was capable of recharging
the aquifer quickly through the loose pores of the gangue pile.
Therefore, the phreatic water level of the gangue field has risen
1e3 m after four-year stack according to the observation at probe
holes in June 2008 (Fig. 2). The long-term soak of coal gangue at the
bottom of the gangue pile produced a large number of leachate
under water-rock interactions, and caused water pollution.
2.3. Water pollution survey
According to the hydrogeological setting surrounding the
gangue field, two samples from surface water and four samples
from groundwater in the study area were collected in March of
2008. Sample L2 and L3 were collected from the stream in the
valley. Sample L1 was collected from the spring vent upstream the
study area, sample L4 and L5 from the wells, while sample L6 from
the soaking solution of the coal gangue (Fig. 3). The concentrations
of Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, Hg, Mn, As in water samples were measured using
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, Agilent
7500a, Santa Clara, CA, USA). The concentrations of NO
3 and F


were tested using DXO120 ion chromatography in the laboratory, as
shown in Table 1.
2.4. Loess feature of coal mine area
Loess is widely distributed in Daliuta coal mine area. It is
covered by silty sand (50%), clay (15e30%) and silver sand (30%).
135
Quatz, one of the main mineral compositions of the loess accounts
for more than 50%, followed by mica, amphibole and feldspar. SiO2,
the dominant chemical composition in loess accounts for more
than 50%, followed by Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, MgO, K2O, Na2O, FeO, TiO2,
etc. The studied loess are characterized by small particles with large
specific surface area, and a large amount of clay minerals with
negative charges to absorb positive ions. Therefore, the loess strata
have large adsorption capacity for heavy metal pollutants.
2.5. The loess column experiments of absorbing heavy metals
Considering the unavailability of massive soak solution of
gangue and the similar chemical compositions of the gangue soak
solution and coal mine wastewater, the wastewater from Daliuta
coal mining was applied as the input solution of the loess column
experiment. The loess was taken from the north hills of the coal
mine. The grain size of experimental loess was 0.05e0.10 mm, the
porosity was 0.32 and the volume weight was 1.54  103 kg/m3.
The column experimental setup was an organic glass column
with a diameter of 8 cm and length of 100 cm. The loess sample was
air dried, sorted and then packed into the organic glass column high
up to 70 cm with the nature density (Fig. 4). In order to avoid the
disturbance of loess and blocking of the outlet, 1 cm-thick pebble
layer were laid on both ends of the loess column when filling the
column. Unpolluted groundwater from upstream of gangue field
was injected into the loess column from the bottom for water
saturation to record the pore volume (PV). After the loess was
saturated, 3e5 PVs water was injected from the top of the loess
column to wash way desorbed ions. At last, the coal mine waste-
water was added into the loess column and kept at a certain level
for the leaching test. Each PV leachate from the loess column was
collected and numbered before filter. Soluble metals such as Cu,
Mn, and Cr were measured using filtered and acidified samples also
by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
2.6. Remediation projection
According to the previous experience and the local conditions of
climate, soil texture and precipitation, artemisia ordosica and al-
falfa were selected as the optimal vegetation for ecological recovery
of the mine. Both of the species are indigenous species, which can
survive easily, keep the characteristics of local species, and more-
over prevent invasive species to reduce the risk of biodiversity
decrease and extinction of local species as well as the other
ecological disasters.
The first stage of the project of the coal gangue plant started in
April 2003 and ended in February 2007 with the volume of gangue
stacks as 2.5  106 m3. Based on further exploitation of coal in 2010,
the second stage of the project was set up in June of 2011 to pile up
gangues along the downstream of the valley.
A 30 cm-thick loess layer was covered on the top of the gangue
field after the first-stage project had ended in March, 2008. Arte-
misia ordosica were planted in drilling way in early April, based on
13.5e16.5 kg/ha. Three months later, 2-or-3-year artificial re-
producted Alfalfa was planted in points strain method with the
spacing of 0.6 m  0.4 m. A LPRB was built on the tertiary mudstone
downstream of the gangue field to purify the gangue leachate. The
LPRB was about 5 m high, 1.5 m wide at the bottom and 0.5 m wide
at the top. The same LPRB was built in the second-stage project in
the downstream of the gangue field in June 2012 since the first
LPRB and observation hole were covered by the coal gangues
(Fig. 5).
136 B. Liu et al. / International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140
Fig. 1. A sketch hydrogeological map of Daliuta mining area.
3. Result and discussion
3.1. Water pollution analysis
The water sample L1 was collected from the spring vent up-
stream the coal gangue field, and may not be affected by the
leachate from the coal gangue. Therefore, the ion concentrations of
sample L1 were applied to represent the background concentration
of the unconfined groundwater in this area. According to the
analysis results, all the indexes of sample L1 meet the quality
standard for drinking water in the People's Republic of China
(GB5749).
The water sample L6 is from the soaking solution of the coal
gangue, in which the measured concentration can represent the
concentration of various pollutants released from the coal gangue
during the long-term leaching and soak in natural conditions. The
measured results showed that all indicators of water sample L6 are
significantly higher than the background values. The concentra-
tions of Mn, As, NO3-N, F
were significantly higher than of
drinking water standard, with the exceeding rate of 3.5, 308.2,
3.985 and 3.56 (Table 1).
For the surface water samples L2 and L3, the sample L2 located
in the upper reaches of the stream is less affected by the leachate
from the coal gangue than the sample L3, and thus the water quality
is better than the sample L3.
The water sample L4 represents the groundwater in the
downstream area of the coal gangue, mainly affected by the coal
gangue in the northwest Valley. The concentration of As in the
sample L4 is 1.013 mg l
1, 148 times higher than the background
value. NO3-N concentration is 31.2 mg/l, three folders higher than
the background value. The results show that the groundwater
downstream the coal gangue has been seriously polluted.
The water quality of the sample L5 from the well in the valley is
not only affected by the leachate from the coal gangue in the
northwest Valley, but also diluted by the groundwater and infil-
trated surface water in the southeast of the Valley. The concen-
trations of all the pollutants were lower than that in the sample L4,
but have also been severely affected by the gangue leachate, with
 B. Liu et al. / International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140 137

Fig. 2. Hydrogeological section map of valley before and after the stack of gangue.

Cr, Pb was 382 mg l
1, 83 mg l
1, 921 mg l
1, 1.2 mg l
1, 3236 mg l
1,
19 mg l
1, 117 mg l
1, and 236 mg l
1, respectively. The concentrations
of Cu and Zn meet the drinking water quality standards, while Mn,
Hg, As, Cd, Cr, Pb exceed the standards by 3.82, 1.2, 323, 3.8, 2.34
and 23.6 times, respectively. Table 2 presents the experiment re-
sults. The pH value for coal mine wastewater before leaching was
4.5 and reached to 6.2e6.7 after leaching through the loess column.
The results showed that 98% of Mn, 99% of Cu, 84% of Zn, 79% of Cd
and 99% of Pb in the wastewater were absorbed when the no.21 PV
mine wastewater flowed through the loess column (Table 2). All the
indexes of the leachate meet the drinking water standards. More
than 96% of As was absorbed before the no.8 PV mine wastewater
flowed through the loess column. Ultimately, the absorption of As
almost reached saturation due to high content of As in the waste-
water. The experiment showed the strong absorption capacity of
loess for most heavy metals and the ability of neutralization of the
coal mine wastewater.
The purification of the acid mine wastewater by leaching
through loess column involves many mechanisms, among which
the most important is the neutralization of carbonate minerals and
the decomposition of silicate minerals (Suteerapataranon et al.,
2006; Johnson, 1995).
Calcium and magnesium carbonates are the most common
carbonate minerals in the loess, they can neutralize the infiltrated
acid. The reactive equations were shown as follows:

CaCO3 þ Hþ ¼ Ca2þ þ HCO3
(1)

MgCO3 þ Hþ ¼ Mg2þ þ HCO3
(2)

Fig. 3. Water samples distribution map.

Mg,CaðCO3 Þ2 þ 2Hþ ¼ Mg2þ þ Ca2þ þ 2HCO3
(3)

the concentrations of Mn, As, NO3-N, F
and other indicators The layered silicates and allophane with extremely high specific
exceeding the drinking water quality standards. surface in the loess decompose in the acid environment, by which
In summary, the groundwater and surface water were serious consume Hþ and raise the pH value. The equation was shown as
polluted, with coal gangue as the center. follows:

nHþ þ layered silicates ¼ A13þ þ SiðOHÞ4 (4)

3.2. The loess column experiments result
The loess is rich of mica, illite and montmorillonoid. All these
The coal mine wastewater used in the experiment had pH value minerals can decompose by encountering hydrogen ion, taking
of 4.5, and the concentration of heavy metals Mn, Cu, Zn, Hg, As, Cd, sodium feldspar as an example:
138 B. Liu et al. / International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140

Table 1
The concentrations of heavy metal ions in water samples (unit: mg l
1).

Sample ID Cr Ni Cu Zn Mn Hg As NO3-N F
Source

L1 0.003 ND 0.017 0.057 0.24 ND 0.007 9.9 0.013 Spring

L2 0.012 ND 0.016 0.047 0.33 ND 0.008 18.1 0.018 Surface water
L3 0.015 0.016 0.024 0.047 0.034 ND 0.011 16.3 0.021 Surface water
L4 0.081 0.023 0.133 0.079 1.01 ND 1.013 31.2 1.972 Groundwater
L5 0.052 0.011 0.035 0.046 0.25 ND 0.056 25.4 1.155 Groundwater
L6 0.564 0.032 0.426 0.075 2.35 ND 3.082 79.7 3.561 Groundwater
Drinking water standard 0.05 0.05 1 1 0.1 0.001 0.01 20 1 GB5749

Note: ND, below the detection limit.

Table 2
The concentration variation of heavy metals in coal mine wastewater (unit: mg l
1).

No. of PV pH Mn Cu Zn Hg As Cd Cr Pb

1 6.3 e e e e e e e e
2 6.5 e e e e e e e e
3 6.4 2 e e e e e e 1
4 6.7 e e e e e e e 2
5 6.5 e e 22 e 32 e e e
6 6.3 4 e 34 e 57 e e e
7 6.6 6 e 45 e 56 e e e
8 6.6 3 e e e 123 e e 3
9 6.4 5 5 65 e 107 2 e e
10 6.7 4 3 35 e 335 1 e e
11 6.5 3 6 78 e 893 1 e 3
12 6.5 6 3 109 e 1187 2 e 3
13 6.5 6 5 121 e 1125 3 e 2
14 6.4 8 7 168 e 1367 3 e 2
15 6.3 7 5 156 e 2423 5 e 3
16 6.4 6 6 143 e 1987 2 e 5
17 6.6 11 6 121 e 2356 4 e 4
18 6.4 7 8 154 e 2781 6 e 6
19 6.5 10 10 133 e 2523 7 e 7
20 6.5 8 11 132 e 3012 3 e 5
21 6.2 8 8 145 e 3238 4 e 3

2NaAlSi3 O8 þ 2Hþ þ H2 O ¼ Al2 Si2 O5 ðOHÞ4 þ 2Naþ þ SiO2

Fig. 4. Column experimental setup.
(5)
The migration and transformation of heavy metal pollutants in a
water-soil system is also a complex process evolving physical,
chemical and biological reactions (Colin and Villegas, 2012). The
loess is characterized by fine grain, large specific surface and con-
taining a certain amount of clay minerals. When the heavy metal
ions leach though the loess column, they can be removed through

Fig. 5. Site remediation of LPRB.

 B. Liu et al. / International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 128 (2018) 134e140 139

physical and chemical reactions such as the surface adsorption, the Table 4
ion exchange and adsorption, dissolution precipitation, oxidation The second-stage project groundwater monitoring results (unit:mg l
1).

reduction, complex chelation, etc. (Adam and Edyvean, 1996; Han Time pH Cr Ni Cu Zn Mn Hg As
et al., 2016). For example, the iron-aluminium oxides in loess can 2012.6 6.1 0.005 e 0.014 0.086 0.35 e 0.007
strongly adsorb As, Cr and other heavy metals (Dugan, 1987). 2013.8 6.0 e e 0.007 0.023 0.17 e e
2014.6 6.7 e e 0.008 0.032 0.15 e e
2015.6 6.5 e e 0.005 0.036 0.13 e 0.003
3.3. Vegetation recovery and groundwater pollution control
effection analysis
layer could satisfy the need of growth of Alfalfa and Artemisia
Every September from 2008 to 2013, the box method was
ordosica. The vegetation of coverage in the gangue field had
adopted to investigate the vegetation and plant species on the
increased from 10% in 2008 to about 65% in 2013. The LPRB can
gangue field.
absorb the most heavy metal ions of gangue leachate and improve
According to the survey results, the artificial cultivated alfalfa
the quality of polluted groundwater.
and artemisia ordosica had grown well and the vegetation coverage
increased yearly. The loess layer could hold enough water for
vegetation growth. The vegetation coverage of the gangue field had Acknowledgments
increased from 10% in 2008 to 65% in 2013. As the soil quality
improved, natural incarvillea sinensis was found in 2009 and other The National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (No.
drought-tolerant plants were found since then, such as Astragalus 41562020, 41571090 and 31560146) supported this research.
adsurgens in 2010, Eragrostis poaeoides in 2011.
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