Mining activity has defined civilization since its inception and in approximately 90% of our daily activities we use chemical and mineral elements extracted from the interior of the earth.
Currently, mining contributes to sustainable processes, such as the European Green Deal, which try to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, ensuring the supply of raw materials, particularly critical or fundamental raw materials. Critical raw materials are those that are economically and strategically important for Europe, but with a high supply risk.
The EU list for 2020 contains thirty critical raw materials, used in electronics, health, steel, aviation, etc., and some of them are increasingly present in renewable energy. An example of this is the addition to this list of lithium, used in batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, and bauxite, the main source of aluminum, which with steel and copper represents approximately 90% of the total weight of a wind turbine . The permanent magnets in the generators of these same turbines also contain other critical raw materials such as some rare earths, cobalt and boron.
In photovoltaic solar energy, more than 90% of the solar cells installed in the panels are made of silicon, in addition to containing other critical raw materials such as indium, gallium and germanium.
At the same time, the mining activity is implementing sustainable measures as new techniques in restoring the impacts generated and the use of remote sensing to monitor environmental behavior. Another measure is the reprocessing of waste, for example iron, zinc and platinum, turning these into secondary raw materials, moving towards a circular economy that will increase jobs in the EU by 2030.
More and more, electric and hybrid mining machinery is being used with autonomous and geolocation systems, saving costs and fuels, and various projects are being launched where there are wind and solar photovoltaic energy installations for self-consumption in mining operations.
Another mechanism that contributes to the European Green Pact is the Just Transition with the diversification of activities in regions with high dependence on coal, where there are sources of raw materials used in renewable energy.
Finally, in achieving the zero-emission target in the EU, the environmental and social risks posed by strategic agreements to guarantee the supply of critical raw materials with some countries outside the EU will be taken into account.
As a conclusion, the mining sector is important for the decarbonisation of Europe and the use of renewable and clean energy by integrating these into its own mining operations.
In our daily life, we are surrounded by radioactivity, from natural or artificial origin. Most of the radioactivity in the environment results from natural elements. In fact, there are radioactive elements in many foods and drinking water. But… How do these elements reach drinking water?
The radionuclides or radioactive isotopes are naturally present in the rocks of the earth’s crust, being the uranium mines a good example of this phenomenon. The content of these natural radionuclides varies between different rocks and soil types, with granite formations being one of the ones with the highest radionuclide content. When groundwater is in contact with these subsoils, it progressively degrades the rocks, dissolving and dragging radionuclides that can be integrated in his chemical composition in concentrations that exceed the standards required by Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom of 22 October 2013. The radionuclides that may be present in drinking water are mainly radon (222Rn), uranium (238U, 234U) and radium (226Ra), among others.
In Spain, the control of radioactive substances in water for human consumption is established according to Royal Decree 140/2003, which indicates the radioactivity parameters to be measured and the maximum values allowed. This RD quotes “all the data generated from the controls of radioactive substances in drinking water or water for the water production for human consumption must be notified in the National Information System on Drinking Water (SINAC)”.
But, do citizens really have access to information about the radiological quality of drinking water? During the development of one of the transversal activities of the LIFE ALCHEMIA project, it has been concluded that, really, the answer varies greatly depending on the country. This European project, co-financed by the LIFE Programme of the European Union, aims to demonstrate the feasibility of environmentally sustainable systems based on oxidations with manganese dioxide and bed filters to removal/reduce the natural radioactivity in water, and minimize the generation of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) in the purification stages.
The LIFE ALCHEMIA project is developing databases that show the levels of natural radioactivity in treated water in drinking water treatment plants throughout the European Union, and it has been observed that in countries such as France or Estonia, citizens have free access to this information, while in countries like Finland or Sweden this information is not public or is not easily accessible. Spain is within this second group. In fact, looking at the SINAC (National Information System on Drinking Water), it is verified that the information on the radiological quality of water, is not accessible to the citizen.
Therefore, hundreds of water managers and City Councils have been contacted to request information, but only a few have responded to this request. This situation is more worrying when the high levels of uranium and thorium present in the subsoil of provinces such as Almería (province where LIFE ALCHEMIA is operating three pilot plants), Pontevedra, Ourense, Salamanca, Cáceres or Badajoz are verified.
This lack of transparency may be due to the fact that the concept of radioactivity does not have a good reputation due to the different catastrophes associated with it, so it is thought that radioactivity is indicative of “death”, even though these catastrophes have no relation to natural radioactivity.
As a final reflexion, three questions:
Did I know that water from my tap may contain natural radioactivity?
Do I know the radiological characteristics of water I drink daily?
And if I want to know them, do I know where I have to go and can I really get that data?
If you try to answer these three questions, you can draw your own conclusions about how this environmental problem is addressed in your locality.
More than a year ago, we invited you to think green and it has been almost two years since we presented the concept “re-naturing cities”. Time waits for no man and it is a great achievement for us to ascertain how these concepts, which we study theoretically, become projects.
For both concepts, the implementation is being carried out with the URBAN GreenUP project implementation. Coordinated by CARTIF, its objective is the development, application and replication of renaturing urban plans in a number of European and non-European cities with the aim of contributing to climate change mitigation, improving air quality and water management, as well as increasing the sustainability of our cities through innovative nature-based solutions. The urban renaturing methodology is going to be demonstrated in three front-runner cities, Valladolid (Spain), Liverpool (The UK) and Izmir (Turkey), with the purpose of becoming more liveable cities using nature. To achieve these objectives, the consortium is formed by 25 partners (now, friends) form 9 countries which involve 3 continents (Europe, South America and Asia).
But we should not be bothering ourselves with all these technical definitions, let us try to use our day-to-day language.
Why this project and its development is so important for the citizens of Valladolid?
… Because Santa María Street will no longer be “one of the pedestrian streets perpendicular to Santiago Street” to become the first street in Valladolid with a Nature-Based Solution installed, green covering shelters specifically. These infrastructures integrate specific vegetation in flat surfaces and their structural features allow provide water for plants, humidity for the ambient and shade for citizens. They contribute to the reduction of heat island effect and improve the well-being providing physical coverage for sun and rain and, moreover, they will allow that the green colour appears in a grey zone.
… Because the time before the bus appears in Plaza España will no longer be a moment of impatience (during which we cannot help feeling “when will the bus arrive!”) to become an instant in which we can feel comfortable seeing the green covering shelters installed that will serve as a support for local urban biodiversity.
… Because one of the main avenues of the city, with high traffic density, will incorporate green noise barriers, structures designed to allow passage of wind thus avoiding its fall and it will mobile characteristics. They will include innovative substrate and specific vegetal species in order to avoid the negative effect of traffic noise for our ears (even 15dB of reduction) to please the eye, improving the air we breathe indirectly.
… Because the widely held etymological theory about the name of Valladolid which suggests that it derives from the expression Vallis Tolitum (meaning “valley of waters”), will become “theoretical” more than ever. The city has suffered important floods over the years that honor the possible origin of its name, but the floodable park to be implemented at the entrance of Esgueva River will integrate several NBS to minimize flooding and allow water drainage when heavy rainfalls or extraordinary flooding episodes occur, in that they are becoming increasingly frequent due to climate change.
It will be in a 2-year time horizon when a total of 42 natured-based solutions will be implemented in several areas of the city, and all of them will contribute to transform Valladolid into a more liveable city and resilient to climate change.
For projects such as this, we are organising the “BY&FOR CITIZENS” conference on smart regeneration of cities and regions, with the collaboration of the Institute for Business Competitiveness of La Junta de Castilla y León. It will be held in Valladolid on September 20 and 21 and among the experts attending the conference are included Paul Nolan, the director of The Mersey Forest, and Ramón López, from the Spanish Climate Change Office, to present and moderate several sessions about integrating nature to create new city ecosystems .
As the psychologist Daniel Goleman says “Green is a process, not a status. We need to think of ‘green’ as a verb, not as an adjective”.
One of the main approved actions in this cross-border project is the restoration and optimization of a constructed wetland in Flores de Ávila, a small municipality in Castilla y León. This waste water treatment system allows the flow of purified wastewater back to the river Trabancos, with enough quality as not to modify the native ecosystem.
This activity has the aim of demonstrating that the proposed solution (the constructed wetland in this particular case) effectively improves the efficient integral water management. This demonstrative pilot experience will allow constructed wetlands introduction as a natural strategy for diversifying wastewater treatment technologies and will check its application for emergent contaminants in urban wastewater at the same time that could provide other environmental advantages in the selected sensitive locations.
The new installation will be a submerged surface flow constructed wetland with five different plant species sited in 10 cells separated by a sheet of water. 5 cells will be seeded with Phragamites australis, and the other 5 cells will be in parallel to the first 5 with different plant species for the analysis of the wastewater treatment effectiveness of the two different configurations and the various species.
This purification system will be supplied with caudalimeters for measuring the input and output flow of water and evapotranspiration and, furthermore, a weather station to collect climate data during the pilot working time.
During the project development, physico-chemical and microbiological data will be collected and analyzed. Monitoring of each cell will allow testing the effect of plant biodiversity over microbial communities responsible for wastewater treatment. Finally, metabolic activity and bacterial species effect over priority and emergent contaminants removal will be assessed.
These tasks will permit information gathering about this wastewater treatment usefulness as an integrated solution in a natural ecosystem. The location of the pilot was chosen in order to demonstrate that constructed wetlands could be integrated in ecosystems with extreme weather conditions, especially considering raining patterns. The area near river Trabancos is affected by the seasonality of its flow, due to drought and flood periods in the river channel. This river hosts the endemic species Achondrostoma arcasii (vermillion), and the study of this species evolution will be a key indicator of this wastewater treatment integration in the natural environment.
It has been estimated that 25%of global population will inhabit countries affected with a continuous shortage of fresh water by 2050. Consequently, facing the objective described in the SDGS is a real challenge and must be tackled by every member of society.
Water demand is relentless rising with a continuously growing global population and as a direct consequence waste and chemicals derived from water conditioning for human consumption are also an increasing threat. More than 80 % of waste water is currently being discharged to natural water flows without any treatment as an average value considering low and high-income countries. This uncontrolled drainage has a huge adverse impact on human health, economic productivity, fresh water natural resources and ecosystems, according to ‘The United Nations World Water Development Report’ from 2017.
Sustainable water management is an essential tool for achieving the water objective in SDGs and every affected agent must be fully compromised for getting free-contaminant water accessible for every human being. Waste water treatment and reuse is key to integral water cycle management and it has amazing benefits for society.
A viable and alternative option for low volume waste water treatment, for example for small and medium size municipalities, is the use of constructed wetlands, imitating natural systems in which water depuration comes from chemical, physical and biological processes occurring thanks to the interaction in soil-water ecosystems.
Constructed wetlands are designed and built so that plant growing in shallow ponds and channels allow a natural ecosystem establishment able to filter and transform contaminants in the water flowing across the wetland.
These alternative depuration systems are considered human made because they are designed and built according to different parameters. Natural depuration mechanisms are imitated but in this case the wetland is sealed in a waterproof manner in the interface soil-wetland so that no waste water is drained towards the natural soil before depuration occurs. Plants and soil substrate are selected according to the location and climate conditions. An important consideration for choosing the vegetable cover is that these plants should be able to tolerate and assimilate a high concentration of contaminants.
Wetland depuration system consists on water flowing across it during a fixed period of time. In the meantime, biochemical microorganisms’ activity acting together with plant oxygen supply and interaction and natural filtering by the substrate itself where everything is embedded allow water depuration with contaminant removal from the waste water.
Plant species grown in these green filters are usually emergent macrophytes, such as reed (Phragmites australis), rush (Scirpus lacustris), bulruchs (Typha spp), lilies, and also some floating plants, for instance duckweed plant (Lemna spp) or water hyacinth and in some cases submerged plants. While choosing species, climate adaptation and local conditions of the wetland location should be taken into account.
The importance of spreading the knowledge and fostering the installation of these wetlands lies in its low cost and energy saving when comparing to traditional depuration techniques. These advantages make of this solution a feasible alternative for small municipalities where waste water treatment is not being applied due to the lack of infrastructure investment. Furthermore, these systems have unquestionable environmental advantages such as the contributions to ecosystems preservation providing optimal conditions for wild species survival including the possibility of restoring habitats and species that were lost due to human activities.
CARTIF is currently participating in the project Poctep Aquamundam. This project has the aim of restoring and optimizing a constructed wetlands in Flores de Ávila (Castilla y León, Spain) among other goals. Water from the sewage treatment plant from this small municipality could be reused (for irrigation as an example) and waste water could be back to the riverTrabancos without disturbing the natural ecosystem. Checking the effectiveness of this alternative depuration system will be done following the population of a small fish, the vermillion, a native species from this river and nowadays under a huge stress due to extreme conditions of the river flow during the last years.
Last June 15 was a double celebration day in CARTIF. On the one hand, we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of theLIFE Programme, the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. It has passed 12 years for us since the first time we applied our first project to this call, and since then, we have participated in 20 projects, most of them related to the concept of air quality, circular economy and environmental footprints. We detail our on-going projects here.
CARTIF has never been the only beneficiary of these projects. The collaboration with many other entities is behind all of them and, that day, we were lucky for having several adventure partners at our headquarters, which made the celebration much more productive in terms of networking. Thanks from here to all of them!
And with 20 projects developed in 12 years … what have we learned?:
These projects have always the same three-phase sequence: proposal, project and post-project and all of them deserve the same attention and efforts.
(Taking advantage of the fact that LIFE program is not hearing now) The equation replicability + long-term sustainability + impacts is the key point which can make that this year your proposal wins.
On the other hand, LIFE COLRECEPS project also celebrated its final conference, presenting publicly what we have achieved after 45 intense months of implementation, involved in the exciting world of expanded polystyrene.
Do you remember what we told you about recycling plastics some time ago? Until now, the recovery process for this waste was mechanical. One method is pressing the waste for briquettes manufacturing and ship them to China (think about the high environmental impact of this transport). The other is by grinding to reuse only 2% as part of new products. With this project, we have implemented a new recycling technology (unique in Europe) that allows valorising 100 % of the waste and obtaining new grit of EPS, suitable for use it in the manufacture of new plastics products used in the packaging sector. So, we achieve closing the life cycle of this plastic waste.
In addition, we have been able to develop a comprehensive database about the generation of this waste in Valladolid (202 t/year are produced!) and we have become aware of the difficulty in its quantification because, even today, asking companies how many waste they produce is a no-no.
Tuqueplast and Grupo Dia are the partners that have reached the end of the project beside us, sharing some issues during the execution. The implementation of the pilot plant in Turqueplast facilities has given us some headaches but during the workshops carried out with children, we have laughed a lot:
Call him Pepito, 7 years old, in response to the question “do you know in which recycling bin we should put into plastics?” he told us “of course!where my mother says!“).
