Environmental impact of manganese due to its leaching from coal fly ash

In India, so far not much efforts have been made to use coal ash as backfill material in underground/ open cast mines and to predict its subsequent effect on ground water quality. One of the main problems in disposing of big quantities of coal ash is the possible leaching of different pollutants, including manganese. A thorough investigation regarding leaching of manganese from different fly ashes is required to know the impact of manganese due to its leaching from fly ash to ground water as well as surface water. In the present study, short term and long term leaching studies have been carried out on fly ash, bottom ash, pond ash and weathered ash of Chandrapura thermal power plant, Bokaro, Jharkhand and Ramagundam thermal power plant, Ramagundam, Andhra Pradesh. The amount of manganese released in different experiments has been evaluated. The leachate of Chandrapura fly ash has more manganese concentration (0.2001 mg/L) than the leachate of bottom ash, pond ash and weathered ash. A field investigation at Damoda abandoned open cast mine, filled with pond ash of Chandrapura thermal power plant revealed that concentration of manganese in ground water beneath the ash filled mine has been found very high (maximum up to 6.0 mg/L). But its migration to a long distance has not been seen. Remedial measures for coal ash disposal have also been formulated.