Abstract
Worldwide, old disposal sites of uranium mine and mill wastes are the objects of environmental restoration programs or have already been remediated. This is the case of Los Gigantes in Córdoba, Argentina, where uranium was extracted and processed in the 1980s; a local source of pollution to watercourses was generated as a consequence of disposal of solid and liquid wastes. The present study aims at describing the physicochemical characteristics of the surface watercourses that run across the complex, finding a grouping structure of the sampling sites according to their degree of pollution, and defining the variables that are significant to that grouping. The problem is addressed with both traditional and robust statistics techniques; additional chemometrical tools are also applied. It was found that streams close to the tailings and the pond exhibit lower pH and higher concentration of anions and metals compared to upstream watercourses. As the distance downstream to these pollution sources increases, all physicochemical parameters recover gradually, reaching levels close to background and complying with provincial and national regulations, proving that pollution is locally constrained.
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Acknowledgments
This study was made possible with the financial support provided by the Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica through the project PP-SNA_GQ_GQA-DSA-01. The authors would like to thank the coworkers of the División Química del Agua y del Suelo and División Química Analítica of the Centro Atómico Constituyentes.
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Folguera, L., Magallanes, J. & Cicerone, D. Analysis of the environmental liabilities generated by past activities in uranium mining exploitation in the Province of Córdoba, Argentina. Environ Earth Sci 75, 407 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-5178-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-5178-9