Migration of lignosulfonates in a karstic-fractured-porous aquifer: History and prognosis for a Zn-Pb mine,Pomorzany, southern Poland

Lignosulfonate lyes, which had been deposited by a paper factory for about 50 years into Quaternary sediments and accumulated in a quasistagnant depression, became mobile when a depression cone caused by mine activity in a deeper aquifer reached the erosion window close to the disposal site. Their transport parameters in the karstic-fractured-porous carbonate aquifer are shown to be mainly governed by diffusion between the mobile water in karstic channels and fractures and the stagnant water in matrix, although the hydraulic conductivity is shown to depend mainly on the karstic system. The main transport velocity is, with a sufficient accuracy, related to the hydraulic conductivity by a simple model in which matrix porosity is the governing rock parameter. The dispersivity, although also governed by matrix diffusion, depends strongly on several parameters that are difficult to determine.