A pre-treatability study to provide data for construction of a demonstration bioreactor

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been studying possible alternatives for remediation of mines, tailings, and acid rock drainage (ARD)/leachate. Because of the sheer number and size of the abandoned mines in the western United States, there is an immediate need to find remedial technologies to treat these wastes that are economical, require little or no power, and require infrequent maintenance. ARD is one of the largest and costliest contaminants entering U.S. surface and sub-surface waterways, and it affects many water bodies in remote areas of the West. This paper reviews a pre-treatability study on the leachate from the Luttrell Repository in the Tenmile Creek basin in Montana. A primary treatability/demonstration study was planned to evaluate the feasibility of using sulfate-reducing bioreactors (SRBR) to treat the leachate passively. This paper will present data on the biological and chemical behavior in four SRBR test cells, the response of the cells to seven weeks of overloading, and the logic behind the selection of the “optimum” mix for the demonstration SRBR substrate.