Environmental impact of drainage of Dianzi Iron Mine on the groundwater system of the Dawu Water Supply Base

Due to growing water extraction for industry and agriculture, the Dawu Water Supply Base, in the east of Zibo, China, has been in a state of serious over-extraction. It will also be affected by the deep drainage of the Dianzi Iron Mine, which will be exploited in 2005. As to the environmental impact on the groundwater system of the Dawu Water Supply Base is concerned, this paper makes a systematic study about the influence of the mine draining on the water-supply environment of the Dawu Water Supply Base by using the numerical model of groundwater system. The result shows that the groundwater level will have an additional drawdown of 1.2–1.8 m/yr by the mine draining alone. The numerical analysis results indicate that the optimal model for determining the best extraction plan is the solution for the contradiction between water supply and water drainage.