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1 January 2020 An Evaluation of the Cumulative Surface Water Pollution on Selected Areas within the Consolidated Main Reef Area, Roodepoort, South Africa
D.N. Muruven, M. Tekere
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Abstract

Mining has long been at the center of the South African economy and has contributed to significant developments within the country. However, despite the large economic impact, surface water pollution due to mining is prevalent in most of the country's water catchments. Surface water in many areas of the central Roodepoort area in Johannesburg, South Africa, has also been impacted primarily by mining activities. The surface water quality for the Bosmontspruit, Russell's Stream, and the New Canada Dam was assessed in this study from October 2010 to March 2011. Physicochemical and biological characteristics of the water were determined for eight monitoring points, and the results obtained were compared with the in-stream water quality guidelines for the Klip River catchment and the South African Water Quality Guidelines. A trend noticed throughout the sampling period was the noncompliance to the set target water quality ranges (TWQRs) in the levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) and dissolved oxygen (DO). The results indicate that concentrations of iron, aluminum, nickel, manganese, and potassium were above the permissible limits across the Bosmontspruit and Russell's Stream. Excessive fecal coliforms and ammonium pollution were also detected in the Bosmontspruit. Additionally, during the monitoring period, it was noted that the water was being utilized for domestic purposes, and may pose health hazards due to poor water quality.

© 2013 SAGE Publications. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
D.N. Muruven and M. Tekere "An Evaluation of the Cumulative Surface Water Pollution on Selected Areas within the Consolidated Main Reef Area, Roodepoort, South Africa," Air, Soil and Water Research 6(1), (1 January 2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/ASWR.S12997
Received: 13 August 2013; Accepted: 18 October 2013; Published: 1 January 2020
KEYWORDS
Acid mine drainage
cumulative pollution
tailings
water pollution
water quality
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