View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Nottingham Trent Institutional Repository (IRep) 1 Understanding the mobilization of metal pollution associated 2 with historical mining in a carboniferous upland catchment 3 Magaly Valencia Avellan1, Rebecca Slack2, Anthony Stockdale3, Robert Mortimer4 4 1water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JZ, UK. 5 2 The Royal Horticultural Society, Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Beckwithshaw, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, 6 HG3 1QB. 7 3School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JZ, UK. 8 4School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Brackenhurst 9 Campus, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, NG25 0QF, UK. 10 E-mail contact:
[email protected] 11 12 Abstract 13 Point and diffuse pollution from metal mining has led to severe environmental damage 14 worldwide. Mine drainage is a significant problem for riverine ecosystems, it is commonly 15 acidic (AMD), but neutral mine drainage (NMD) can also occur. A representative environment 16 for studying metal pollution from NMD is provided by Carboniferous catchments characterised 17 by a circumneutral pH and high concentrations of carbonates, supporting the formation of 18 secondary metal-minerals as potential sinks of metals. The present study focuses on 19 understanding the mobility of metal pollution associated with historical mining in a 20 Carboniferous upland catchment. In the uplands of the UK, river water, sediments and spoil 21 wastes were collected over a period of fourteen months, samples were chemically analysed 22 to identify the main metal sources and their relationships with geological and hydrological 23 factors.