@article{10272/21770,
year = {2023},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21770},
abstract = {Approximately 100 million tons of phosphogypsum were stockpiled onto marsh soils of the Tinto River estuary (Huelva, SW Spain). This study focuses on the hydraulic response of the phosphogypsum stack to the different weathering agents, as well as on the hydrochemical behavior of highly acidic and polluted effluents from its leaching during different hydrological conditions. To address these issues, a CTD-Diver was installed in a bore-hole within a phosphogypsum stack profile, which recorded the variations in the water-table of the stack, and edge outflows samples were collected around the perimeter of the stack during four sampling periods in different seasons. During dry periods, the water-table of the stack remains almost static and is controlled only by the tide oscillations. However, during rainy events this water-level rapidly increases up to 20 cm and subsequently decreases, defining peaks that coincide with the rainfalls. Having a hydraulic connection to the sea and groundwater flow in conduits, the phosphogypsum stack behaves as an anthropogenic karstic-coastal aquifer. Regarding the hydrochemical behavior of the edge outflows, the concentrations of most pollutants (e.g., PO4, Al, As, Cd or U) showed a slight decrease from the dry-warm to the rainy period. These leachates releases high concentrations of contaminants to the estuary, e.g., PO4, As and U (average values of 5000, 6.9 and 3.0 t/yr, respectively). The results obtained in this study could contribute to the development of effective treatment systems for leachates from phosphogypsum stack of Huelva and to minimize their impact on the surrounding estuarine environment.},
organization = {This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and
Competitiveness, the European Regional Development Fund and the
University of Huelva under the research projects TRAMPA (MINECO;
PID2020-119196RB-C21), VALOREY (MINECO; RTI 2018-101276-JI00)
and EMFHA-SIST (FEDER; UHU-486 1253533). C.R C´anovas
thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the Postdoctoral
Fellowship granted under application reference RYC2019-
027949-I. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva/
CBUA. We would also like to thank Dr. Huaming Guo (Editor-in-Chief)
and two anonymous re-viewers for the support and comments that
significantly improved the quality of the original paper.},
publisher = {Elsevier},
keywords = {Phosphogypsum stack},
keywords = {Anthropic aquifer},
keywords = {Highly polluted leachates},
keywords = {Ría de Huelva estuary},
title = {Phosphogypsum weathering and implications for pollutant discharge into an estuary},
doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128943},
author = {Millán Becerro, Ricardo and Pérez López, Rafael and Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos and Macías Suárez, Francisco},
}