Peatlands as Filters for Polluted Mine Water?—A Case Study from an Uranium-Contaminated Karst System in South Africa—Part III: Quantifying the Hydraulic Filter Component

Abstract

As Part III of a four-part series on the filter function of peat for uranium (U), this paper focuses on the hydraulic component of a conceptual filter model introduced in Part II. This includes the quantification of water flow through the wetland as a whole, which was largely unknown and found to be significantly higher that anticipated. Apart from subaquatic artesian springs associated with the underlying karst aquifer the higher flow volumes were also caused by plumes of polluted groundwater moving laterally into the wetland. Real-time, quasi-continuous in situ measurements of porewater in peat and non-peat sediments indicate that rising stream levels (e.g., during flood conditions) lead to the infiltration of stream water into adjacent peat deposits and thus allow for a certain proportion of flood water to be filtered. However, changes in porewater quality triggered by spring rains may promote the remobilization of possibly sorbed U.

Keywords

• peat
• porewater
• in-situ real-time monitoring
• hydrodynamics
• uranium