The paper reviews techniques to assess environmental threat of wastewaters from mining companies. It was proved that the only reliable approach to assessment of technogenic impact on biological systems is application of both biological and non-biological environmental parameters, and which is crucial with obligatory account for their interdependence. Ecological investigation of a section of the Luga River in the impact area of the «PG Fosforit Company», located in the Leningrad Region, was used as an example of environmental impact of a mining company on water ecosystems.
A method of analyzing the changes in the state of the sorbent surface depending on the time of sorption of petroleum products from aqueous solutions for different granulometric composition of the initial sorbent using coherent scattered X-ray radiation has been developed. The theoretical basis and experimental estimates of changes in the angle of coherently scattered photons from the sorbent surface are given. It is obtained that the angle of coherent scattering of photons depends on the class of sor-bent coarseness. In the process of sorption there is a change in the surface structure, which leads to a change in the scattering angle. Thus, knowing the angle of scattered radiation, it is possible to determine the type of the surface of any porous sorbent, as well as to estimate the degree of filling of the surface with the sorbed substance.
This work is focused on one of the important problems of many metallurgical industries: wastewater treatment from heavy metals, in particular, from effluents containing soluble forms of iron. Most often for this purpose various imported expensive sorbents with ion-exchange function are used. The purpose of this work was to compare the sorption characteristics of already known and used in filtration processes inorganic sorbents and new mineral raw materials - iron-manganese nodules. The results of the experiment showed that the sorption capacity of nodules can be compared with that of crushed concentrates of pyrolusite. Thus, it is possible to recommend ferromanganese nodules for use instead of already known and used in filtration processes inorganic sorbents for water purification from iron (2+).
