Using electrical resistivity imaging to understand surface coal mine hydrogeology

Abstract:

Understanding the hydrology of disturbed lands is important given the increasing human footprint on earth. Surface coal mining has caused significant land-use change in central Appalachia in the past few decades. The mining process breaks up overburden rock above coal seams, and then replaces that material at the mine location and in adjacent unmined valleys (valley fills). The freshly exposed rock surfaces undergo weathering which often alters water quality and ultimately aquatic communities in effluent streams. One of the most common water quality effects is increased total dissolved solids (TDS), which is usually measured via its surrogate, specific conductance (SC). The SC of valley fill effluent is a function of fill construction methods, materials, and age. Yet hydrologic studies that relate these variables to water quality are sparse due to the difficulty of implementing traditional hydrologic measurements in fill material. We tested the effectiveness of electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) to monitor subsurface geologic patterns and hydrologic flow paths in a test-case valley fill. We paired ERI with artificial rainfall experiments to track infiltrated water as it moved through the valley fill material. Results indicate that ERI can be used to identify the subsurface geologic structure and track advancing wetting fronts or preferential flow paths. We observed that the upper portion of the fill profile contains significant fines, while the deeper profile is primarily composed of large rocks and void spaces. The artificial rainfall experiments revealed that water ponded on the surface of compacted areas until it reached preferential flow paths, where it infiltrated quickly and deeply. We observed water moving from the surface down to >10 m depth within 75 minutes. In sum, vertical and lateral preferential flow paths were evident at both shallow (through compacted layers) and deep (among boulders) locations. Such extensive preferential flow suggests that a relatively small proportion of fill material experiences water movement and therefore contributes to elevated SC. This study demonstrates that ERI can improve understanding of storm hydrology and groundwater response in disturbed landscapes and aid development of valley-fill construction methods to reduce environmental impacts.