Quality assessment of mine water of Raniganj coalfield areas : A case study

Raniganj coalfield is India’s well known and the richest coal mining belt. The physico-chemical characteristics of mine water of the upper catchments of Raniganj Coalfield (W.B.) were studied to evaluate the water quality assessment. The aims of the present work is to characterize and to assess the suitability of mine water for domestic purposes by comparing various parameters of mine water with drinking water standard as per IS:10500. A total of 27 mine water samples were collected from 8 mining areas including underground and open cast coal mines. These samples were analyzed for various parameters such as pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, turidity, dissolved oxygen, total hardness, chloride, suphate, bicarbonate, alkalinity, sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium etc. the pH values of water samples range from 6.5 to 8.2 which are within the permissible limit of 6.5 to 8.5 as per the drinking water standards IS: 10500. Conductivity in mine water varied from 331 to 1386 μS/cm. Turbidity in mine water varied from 0.15 to 16.9 NTU. The values of chloride content of all mine water samples were also found to be within the desirable limit. Sulphate content in underground mine discharged water ranged from 1.77 to 263.9 mg/L while the alkalinity content in the mine water samples varied from 50.0 to 662 mg/L. The sodium and potassium concentration in mine waters varied from 4.2 to 137.7 mg/L and 4.6 to 7.5 mg/L, respectively. The calcium and magnesium concentration in underground mine water varied from 3.3 to 60.1 mg/L and 4.6 to 68.1 mg/L, respectively. The analytical results of mine water samples revealed that mine water, in general, was satisfactory for domestic use