Assessment of environmental soil quality around Sonepur Bazari mine of Raniganj coalfield, India

Masto, R. E.; Sheik, S.; Nehru, G.; Selvi, V. A.; George, J.; Ram, L. C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-811-2015

Articles | Volume 6, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-811-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-6-811-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 3

Research article

|

08 Jul 2015

Research article |

| 08 Jul 2015

Assessment of environmental soil quality around Sonepur Bazari mine of Raniganj coalfield, India

R. E. Masto, S. Sheik, G. Nehru, V. A. Selvi, J. George, and L. C. Ram

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Final revised paper (published on 08 Jul 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 10 Feb 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C161: 'Comments to sed-7-617-2015', Anonymous Referee #1, 07 Mar 2015
- AC C430: 'Response to Comments (Reviewer # 01)', Reginald Masto, 17 Apr 2015
RC C200: 'Revision', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Mar 2015
- AC C431: 'Response to comments (Reviewer # 02)', Reginald Masto, 17 Apr 2015

Short summary

Impact of coal mining on soil was assessed through an integrated environmental soil quality index (ESQI). Biological activity was higher in underground mine (UGM) soil. As, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Pb were higher in opencast mine (OCM) soil, whereas Cd was higher in UGM. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were higher in UGM soil. Calculated ESQI, based on total PAHs, loss on ignition, bulk density, Be, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, and microbial quotient, was higher for UGM (+10.1%) than OCM soils.