Principles and Basis of Efficient and Ecologically Balanced Use of Water Resources in Karst Regions

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering E.V. Koposov, S.E. Koposov PRINCIPLES AND BASIS OF EFFICIENT AND ECOLOGICALLY BALANCED USE OF WATER RESOURCES IN KARST REGIONS Second edition, revised, translated from Russian Nizhny Novgorod NNGASU 2012 ББК 26.3 К 55 Reviewed by: L.N. Gubanov, doctor of technical sciences, professor, Corresponding member of RAABS, honoured scientist of the Russian Federation, holder of the chair of ecology and nature management (Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering) A.D. Kozhevnikov, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, senior researcher, general director of the Engineering-Ecological Centre (Moscow) E.V. Koposov. Principles and basis of efficient and ecologically balanced use of water resources in karst regions [Text]: monograph / E.V. Koposov, S.E. Koposov; Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. – N. Novgorod: NNGASU, 2012. – 185 p. ISBN 978-5-87941-860-6 The monograph evaluates the scale and dynamics of man-caused pollution of underground waters used for water supply in the areas with subterranean and surface karst forms that have become vertical “transit” conduits for the pollution to penetrate deep into the rock massif. The authors collected and summarized numerous and unique materials on the study of this subject-matter by foreign and domestic scientists. The performed field and experimental investigations resulted in the development of complex methods of assessment of the extent of the underground water technogenic pollution. The book is oriented on the specialists in the field of geoecology, water supply and sewage, hydrogeology and engineering geology, ecology and nature management, teachers, post-graduate and undergraduate students of the above mentioned subjects, as well as specialists of design organizations. The monograph has been written on the results of the fundamental researches implemented within the framework of the assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, register No. 5.5323.2011 ББК 26.3 ISBN 978-5-87941-860-6 © Koposov E.V., 2012 © Kopos ov S.E., 2012 © NNGASU, 2012 Table of Content page Preface 5 Chapter 1. Analysis of the present state of underground water quality and its use in karst regions 7 1.1. General characteristic of man-caused changes of the underground hydrosphere in the karst regions 8 1.2. Problems of arranging and exploiting waste disposal sites on the karstified territories 17 Conclusions 33 Chapter 2. Principles and methods of studying underground water pollution processes in the karst regions 35 2.1. Basic ideas about processes and schemes of migration of underground waters under conditions of covered karst 36 2.2. Characteristic of main methods of studying underground water pollution processes on the karstified territories 40 2.3. Aspects of organizing special observations of the underground water pollution dynamics on the karstified territories 52 Conclusions 60 Chapter 3. Methods of assessment of underground water sensitivity to and protection from technogenic impact in the karst regions 61 3.1. Description of the main types of cross sections of rock masses in the karst regions of the Middle Volga 62 3.2. Typification of technogenic sources of pollution of the underground hydrosphere 68 3.3. Basic types and sources of the underground water pollution with characteristics of contaminants by the example of the karstified territories of the Nizhny Novgorod region 69 3.4. Assessment of underground water protectability 79 3.4.1. Qualitative assessment of ground water protectability 79 3.4.2. Qualitative assessment of pressure water protectability 82 3.5. Methodological fundamentals of assessment of underground water interconnection on the karstified territories 85 3.5.1. Main factors determining rock permeability 85 3.5.2. Regional patterns of distribution of filtering properties of poorly permeable deposits in Nizhny Novgorod region 93 3.5.3. Permeability of Permian marl clay deposits on the 101 3 “zarechnaya” territory of Nizhny Novgorod 3.5.4. Methods of quantitative assessment of the underground water flow from adjacent aquifers 107 Conclusions 117 Chapter 4. Assessment of the extent of the man-caused underground water pollution and study of mechanisms of its `propagation 121 4.1. Structure of the information support of the geoecological assessment of the man-caused underground water pollution in the karst regions 122 4.2. Main regional patterns of karst development and distribution of recent karst forms 127 4.3. Main types of the mechanism of propagation of underground water technogenic pollution in the regions of covered karst 135 4.4. Assessment of the extent of the underground water pollution 139 Conclusions 156 Chapter 5. Principles of sustainable use of the underground waters in the karst regions 157 5.1. General requirements to the water resources development on the karstified territories 158 5.2. Information-and-management model of the system of ecologically clean water supply from the underground sources on the karstified territories 159 5.3. Typification of water intakes by the conditions of possible pollution based on the natural protectability of the exploited aquifers and water- bearing complexes 160 5.4. System of protective measures for isolation and elimination of the existing sources of pollution of the underground hydrosphere and preventive measures for the designed facilities 162 Summary 166 References 167 4 Preface Urgency of the problem. Under the conditions of technogenesis underground waters have become the most important life-supporting factor for a man and for the society in general. The underground water extraction for water supply just in the Volga basin reaches 5,173.864 million m3/year (Naidenko, 2003). Man-caused pollution of the underground waters is especially dangerous in karst regions, the total area of which in Russia constitutes about 20% of its entire area, and according to N.A. Gvozdetsky, a well-known karst expert, about on one third of the territory of our planet there exist real conditions for karst development. On the one hand, karst regions are characterized by a significant decrease of natural protectability of the underground hydrosphere; on the other hand, they contain considerable reserves of high quality fresh underground waters. The karstified territories, where zones of a free flow (water exchange) between the zone of suspended water and the underlying aquifers occur due to the development of sinkholes and disruption of the geologic cross-section continuity, are the most vulnerable to industrial, domestic, agricultural and chemical waste landfills, as well as to other technogenic influences. Inevitably, it leads to deterioration of the underground water quality, to the change of its medical and biologic properties, i.e. general mineralization, pH, chemical composition, content of toxic microcomponents. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, about 370 million tons of solid wastes are disposed annually on 280,000 landfills. About 1,600 million tons of toxic wastes are stored in specially arranged disposal sites, including 178 million tons of nickel and its compounds, over 9 million tons of hexavalent chromium and its compounds, over 4 million tons of non-organic compounds of fluorine and other toxic substances. These landfills are immediate polluters of the underground waters, keeping in mind that about 40 per cent of them have not been equipped even with liners. When planning protective measures, quality improvement and rational management of water resources in the karst regions, one should pay a special attention to the study of conditions of their natural protection, migration of pollutants with regard to the recent and ancient sinkholes, identification of polluted areas and assessment of the pollution level under conditions of a continuously growing technogenic impact. The lack of methodology of a complex assessment of the underground water pollution in the karst regions, as well as effective measures of the underground water protection restrains the ecologically safe supplying of high quality fresh water to population, and as a result – socio-economic development of large regions in general. This explains the urgency of the problem and the necessity of its early solution. 5 The goal and tasks of the researches. The researches were aimed at the developing and applying methods of a complex evaluation of the man-caused pollution of the underground waters in the karst regions for the purpose of selecting ecologically safe locations of industrial enterprises, water intakes, wastewater treatment facilities, disposal sites of industrial, agricultural and domestic wastes, storehouses of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, reduction of the existing man-induced loads on the underground hydrosphere, and the efficient management of the underground water resources. The following tasks were to be accomplished to reach the above mentioned goal: − analysis and generalization of the existing international and domestic experience in studying underground water pollution processes in the karst regions; − analysis and typification of the geoecological conditions of the karstified territories in connection with the existing long-term functional specificity of the region (Nizhny Novgorod region); − identification of the main existing and potential underground water polluters, their classification

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