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Science of the Total Envir

Preface

Bioremediation of acid mine drainage: the Wheal Jane Mine

wetlands project

The issue of acid mine drainage has arisen over the

past 20 years in the UK, and in many other countries,

as mines have been closed down and groundwater

tables rebounded with the subsequent release of acidic

waters into streams, rivers, wetlands and estuaries.

Government agencies around the world have had to

manage the legacy of pollution from abandoned mines

and wetland bioremediation is one technique that

could provide a long-term sustainable management

option.

This volume brings together integrated research

conducted on a wetland system constructed down-

stream of the Wheal Jane Mine, Cornwall, South-

Western UK. This research centres on remediating

acidic and metal bearing mine discharges following a

major pollution incident in the UK. The scheme now

constructed at Wheal Jane comprises a wetland

system that has been designed to treat minewaters

utilising the techniques of bioremediation to remove

pollutants such as metals prior to discharge of the

minewater into the Carnon River and Fal River/

Estuary system. The wetlands project was set up as a

joint venture between the Environment Agency, the

DTI, the mining industry, represented by the Mining

Industry Research Organisation (MIRO), Knight

Piesold, who were responsible for the original

construction and operation of the Wheal Jane wetland

system, several universities leading in this area of

research and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at

0048-9697/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2004.09.001

Wallingford. The research project was funded by the

DTI LINK programme (Project BTL/20/71 RC140)

and the Environment Agency under the EA Wheal

Jane Minewater Project (11139\R11369).

Following construction of the Wheal Jane wet-

land system, a long-term monitoring programme

was established and a set of research projects were

carried out to evaluate the behaviour of the system

and to develop a model that could be used to

address design and operational issues. In this special

issue, a set of 14 papers are provided which

describe the research findings. A very wide range

of research is reported covering areas linked to

water chemistry, microbiology, ecology, sediment

geochemistry, the development of the Wheal Jane

wetlands model, and the policy issues concerning

wetland bioremediation and management of mine

drainage.

Paul Whitehead

Aquatic Environments Research Centre,

University of Reading, Whiteknights,

Reading RG6 6AB, UK

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 118 987 5123;

fax: +44 118 931 4404.

Colin Neal

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,

Wallingford Oxon, OX10 8BB, UK

onment 338 (2005) 1