Environmental Assessment and Soil-Quality Regulation in Impact Zone of Coal-Mining and -Processing Facilities

The main purpose of the work was to verify the applicability of the approach to assessing the ecological state of soils and a theoretical model of the response of a living being in the form of a vegetation index to the impact of a complex of heavy metals in the zone of impact of coal-mining and -processing facilities in the conditions of the Far Eastern taiga-forest soil-bioclimatic region. The research was carried out in conjunction with a geochemical assessment of natural environments, which made it possible to consider the size of the impact zones of coal-mining and -processing facilities on the territory of the emission quota experiment conducted by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. The inventory of emission sources allowed us to identify several priority areas: the main industrial site, an industrial boiler house, an integrated industrial site, two coal mines, etc. According to the results of the summary calculations of the dispersion of pollutants, the following priority pollutants were identified: carbon (soot) and inorganic and coal dust. The determination of soil and snow pollution levels made it possible to identify the localization of technogenic anomalies of heavy metals, as well as to determine the dust load on the studied area. The soil cover is characterized by a low level of pollution in terms of the total pollution index, however, the accumulation of trace elements in the surface layer of soils is typical for most of the studied metals and metalloids, as evidenced by concentration coefficients >1. Centers of snow cover pollution have been identified, which are confined to the residential area. Areas with very high levels of snow pollution are located near municipal boiler houses. Based on a theoretical model of the response of a living being in the form of a vegetation index to the effect of a complex of heavy metals of a certain set contained in the soils of the vicinity of a coal-mining and -processing enterprise, maximum permissible levels of their content have been established. The boundaries of the zone of influence of the main structural divisions of the coal-mining enterprise, beyond which the territories of the natural and anthropogenic background are distributed, are determined. The soils in the vicinity of coal-mining and -processing facilities are characterized mainly by a background (undisturbed) condition or are poorly degraded, and, thus, no harm has been done to the soils.