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Polluting The Environment With Acid Mine Drainage In Sudbury, Ontario

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Mines are important to civilizations because mining has provided metals that are used in the construction, transportations, energy, etc. Many important mines in Ontario can be found in Sudbury. However, mines pollute the environment by polluting the environment with acid mine drainage. Microbes speed up the process of leeching and oxidation in producing acid mine drainage. Nadia Mykytczuk, an environmental microbiologist in Sudbury, Ontario is investigating how microbes could be used to retrieve the ore tailings from mines instead of polluting the environment with acid mine drainage. She hypothesizes that the bioleaching could help prevent the harmful affects of acid mine drainage on the environment, recover valuable metal from the earth, and restore mines to be a habitable environment for species.
http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/mining/2013/06/Microbes-could-help-recover-metals-in-tailings.aspx …show more content…

Oxidation is a synthesis reaction between a chemical and oxygen. The sulphur found in ore tailings reacts with oxygen to create a non-metal oxide, which is an acidic oxide. Another synthesis reaction occurs where the non-metal oxide, sulphur dioxide reacts with water to produce sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is an acidic solution and acid damages the environment by polluting lakes and harm wildlife such as fish. However, acid can be neutralized using a base. The pH would be closer to 7 and produce water and an ionic compound ending the pollution and protecting the wildlife in the environment. Neutralization has been used to clean up our lakes from acidic or basic

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The last test was called the Acidity test. The Acidity test gives us the alkalinity and acid of a stream. On the Ph scale it goes from 0 to 14. A stream with a great abundance of life will probably have a reading of 7 on the scale( which is near neutral). Here are the results from some of the tests.

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A stream with a great abundance of life would probably have a measurement of or near seven, which is near neutral, or the measurement may be a little higher. For a stream that is not as productive, the pH measurement may be higher or lower than seven. For the alkalinity test, the average was thirteen. An alkalinity test tells you if there are limestone, which neutralizes acid. The average amount of rocks that did neutralize acid was sixty five, while the average amount of rocks that didn’t neutralize acid was twenty nine.

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A change in alkalinity results in a change in pH. Therefore, if the alkalinity is too high, the pH will be affected which will affect wildlife living in that area. In addition to that, if the alkalinity is too low, the quick change in pH will lead wildlife such as fish into a more vulnerable state (“pH and Alkalinity,” n.d.). Procedures: Our experiment consisted of various steps in order to determine the total alkalinity of the Catoctin Creek Watershed. The water we tested for our experiment was collected from the Appalachian Trail Rd. North of Roundhill.

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Most of these microbes feed on rock, like lichen, which “. . . basically eat rock and they breathe sunlight.” That being said, the rovers are not allowed to enter what are known as “special regions” which have attributes that allow bacteria from Earth to thrive. The special regions include “. . . the periodic dark streaks, known as recurrent slope lineae, spotted on the sides of crates, canyons, and mountains.

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If the pH levels fall below 4.8 then then it becomes hostile to the aquatic life, at levels below 5pH Most fish eggs can not hatch, even lower pH levels will kill adult fish. (Conserve Energy Future)Acidification also reduces biodiversity since most aquatic life cannot survive in just low levels of pH(Conserve Energy Future), but the main problem for norway is their economy. Fish is not only their main source of food, but norway's main export as well.(Environmental Issues.) That is a major problem because if norway loses all of their fish there economy will free fall after losing its main export and top food source. The norwegian government is making huge strides to improve the Sulfur and nitrogen dioxide levels.

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