Implications of EU-Water Framework Directive for the East German Postmining Landscape Lausitz: Coping with a sparse knowledge of the underground

Mining dumps are major sources of pollutants within the mining area of Lausitz, especially sulphate and iron. Their existence in catchment areas comprising groundwater bodies or lakes often imposes negative effects on the water quality. The European Union Water Framework Directive [EU-WFD, 2000. Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy. The European Parliament and Council, L327/1, p. 72] aims to achieve ‘good quality’ status for all water bodies across Europe by 2015. Consequently, predicting the development of ground and lake water quality is necessary and must be based on the geochemical composition of the mining dumps. Therefore, the dumps need to be quantified as pollutant sources.A method to calculate the amount of sulphate in mine dumps is presented. It is based on historic geological and geochemical data characterising the pre-mining situation. Additional information on the dump body, derived from the vertical extension of mining activities and the current Digital Elevation Model (DEM), allows the composition of the dump to be determined. This procedure is demonstrated for the Bärwalde site. An average total sulphur content of 0.62% (5.9 million tonnes) was calculated for the Bärwalde dump. About 40% of it is estimated to be pyrite sulphur. Applying an average pyrite oxidation rate for the whole dump body of 7% led to an additional water-soluble mass of 0.18 million tonnes of sulphate sulphur.Applying this technique to all mine dumps managed by the postmining administration company LMBV, will improve our knowledge of the catchment area for the different lakes of Lausitz and will form an essential basis for reactive transport calculations.