disused quarry pits

[Aictos]

When such pits have reached the end of their working life and get filled with water, where does the water come from when they first fill it up?

Just something that has always puzzled me.

 

[mumrar]

I take it you've never seen it rain

 

[Aictos]

I take it you've never seen it rain

Very funny, still if that's how it gets filled up then it must take something the scale of a Indian monsoon which I've never encountered and probably never will.

 

[flymo]

Just water running down from the surface to the water table or aquifer probably. Much easier to enter a bored or blasted hole than to permeate through the rocks etc

 

[royaloak]

Most of it is ground water but a fair bit is rain, of course if it was ALL rain water then in summer they would empty due to evaporation, which of course they dont.

 

[Dai.]

Just to add to the confusion.

It's gunna have to be a really big bucket..

 

[142094]

Probably depends on a number of local factors, and of course the depth. In some places the water table is so low that it can only be rain, surface run-off into the hole or throughflow.

 

[j0hn0]

ask the Dutch, the amount of construction sites I saw last year which were just massive holes in the ground full of water is beyond me.

I think the water table argument is the best one, however, why do open and working quarries not fill up with water in the same way? or is their water pumped out?

 

[142094]

I think the water table argument is the best one, however, why do open and working quarries not fill up with water in the same way? or is their water pumped out?

Most likely will be, but of course depends on what time of year and the weather. Water tables fluctuate throught the year so in the summer they may be lower than the bottom of the quarry.

 

[StoneRoad]

A working quarry or mine collects water from several sources :
- direct rainfall
- intercepted runoff (ie surface water draining into the lower position)
- water table (if the local water table is higher than the level of the mine it will collect water)

Therefore, the facility will be pumped dry, to allow the ore or coal or whatever to be extracted,

Once this stops, then water will accumulate, and fill it up. Unless evaporation or other losses (such as seepage to other areas or water courses occurs) grater than the inflow.

In some areas the NCB is still responsible for treating such seepages before they get into "normal" water flows (rivers)

I hope the above is clear? (as mud?)

 

[Aictos]

A working quarry or mine collects water from several sources :
- direct rainfall
- intercepted runoff (ie surface water draining into the lower position)
- water table (if the local water table is higher than the level of the mine it will collect water)

Therefore, the facility will be pumped dry, to allow the ore or coal or whatever to be extracted,

Once this stops, then water will accumulate, and fill it up. Unless evaporation or other losses (such as seepage to other areas or water courses occurs) grater than the inflow.

In some areas the NCB is still responsible for treating such seepages before they get into "normal" water flows (rivers)

I hope the above is clear? (as mud?)

fantastic thanks,

 

[142094]

In some areas the NCB is still responsible for treating such seepages before they get into "normal" water flows (rivers)

Not the NCB but the Coal Authority working with the EA.