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The Retsof Mine in Livingston County, New York had completely filled with saturated brine by 1996 following a collapse on March 12, 1994 and subsequent flooding with ground water. Monitoring revealed salinity was increasing in the fractured rock above the mine in the collapse area, and it was connected to the upward rise of brine from the mine. A remedial plan was developed in 2003 to prevent the saline water and brine from entering the overlying aquifer system at the base of the glacial
valley. The remedial plan consisted of pumping brine from the fractured bedrock in the collapse zone at a rate equal to the calculated brine squeeze rate from mine closure. The remedial plan was designed based on data collected from well drilling, geophysical logging, ground water sampling and analysis, geochemical modeling, and subsidence monitoring. Caliper and gamma-ray geophysical logging were employed to confirm the location of significant stratigraphic contacts, to refine the monitoring program. Caliper and acoustic televiewer logging were used to locate and evaluate the extent of fracture zones in the bedrock to determine the optimal placement of the pumps in the brine remediation wells. The remedial pumping program was initiated in May of 2006, after a period of pre-pumping monitoring, and was continued until December of 2013. Monitoring continued after cessation of pumping until November of 2014. The monitoring shows that the pumping program was successful in controlling the brine migration. The subsidence and geochemical modeling results show that no differential subsidence was induced by pumping induced dissolution of anhydrate and halite. The subsidence data also show that the brine squeeze rate is approximately 15.7 gpm, which is much lower than initially projected and that it would take 2,240 years for full mine closure at this rate. Approximately 47 percent of the mine area is at a closure rate of zero; consequently, it is likely that the overall mine closure rate will approach zero in the distant future.
Gowan, S.W. and Nadeau, J.M., 2017
New York Geological Association 89th Annual Meeting Field Trip Guidebook; pp 29-47
Keywords:
bedded salt deposits, brine chemistry, brine disposal, computer modeling, dissolution, geology, geochemistry, modeling, monitoring, New York, salt processing, salt properties, sinkholes, subsidence, underground mine/mining