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Legacy Soil Contamination at Abandoned Mine Sites: Making a Case for Guidance on Soil Protection

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Abstract

Within the European Union, guidance in the form of a uniform Soil Directive does not exist and member states are left to enact their own legislation governing historic soil contamination. Several historic or “legacy” sites exist in Cyprus – an EU member state with a long history of mining and a significant number of abandoned mining sites. The gold–silver enrichment plant of Mitsero village was abandoned 70 years ago, yet soil samples inside and outside the plant were extremely low in pH, exhibited high leachability of heavy metals and high cyanide levels. Water samples collected from an ephemeral stream located down-gradient of the site contained high levels of heavy metals. Two abandoned open-pit mines (Kokkinopezoula and Mathiatis) were investigated, where elevated metal content in soil samples from the surrounding streams and spoil heaps, and extremely low pH and high metal content in water samples from the mine crater were measured.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the International Water Research Center NIREAS (NEA IPODOMI/STRATH II/0308/09) co-funded by the Republic of Cyprus and the European Regional Development Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Subsurface Research Laboratory, NIREAS-International Water Research Center, University of Cyprus, Panepistimiou 1, 1056, Lefkosia, Cyprus

    Ifigenia Gavriel & Marinos Stylianou

  2. Geological Survey Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Republic of Cyprus, 1 Lefkonos Street, 1415, Lefkosia, Cyprus

    Andreas M. Zissimos & Eleni Morisseau

  3. Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon, Polythechniou, Zografou, 15773, Athens, Greece

    Dimitris Dermatas

  4. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Tx, 77204, USA

    Konstantinos Kostarelos

Authors
  1. Konstantinos Kostarelos
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  2. Ifigenia Gavriel
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  3. Marinos Stylianou
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  4. Andreas M. Zissimos
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  5. Eleni Morisseau
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  6. Dimitris Dermatas
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Correspondence to Konstantinos Kostarelos.

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Kostarelos, K., Gavriel, I., Stylianou, M. et al. Legacy Soil Contamination at Abandoned Mine Sites: Making a Case for Guidance on Soil Protection. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 94, 269–274 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1461-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1461-4

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