RT Journal Article
T1 Tracing acid mine drainage from an accidental spill on the Estuary of Huelva (SW Spain)
A1 Pérez López, Rafael
A1 Ruiz Cánovas, Carlos
A1 Macías Suárez, Francisco
A1 Basallote Sánchez, María Dolores
A1 Freydier, Rémi
A1 Olías Álvarez, Manuel
A1 Nieto Liñán, José Miguel
AB The Estuary of Huelva in southwestern Spain is severely impacted by acid mine drainage (AMD), primarily due to extensive mining activities in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB), and to a lesser extent by industrial sources. The AMD has led to significant contamination of the Odiel and Tinto rivers, which carry high loads of metals into the estuary. In May 2017, an accidental spill occurred at La Zarza mine, releasing approximately 270,000 m3 of acidic water contained in a pit lake. This event increased the contamination levels in the Odiel River and subsequently in the Estuary of Huelva and the Atlantic Ocean. The current focus of our investigation is to understand the geochemical behavior of contaminants during estuarine mixing and evaluate the environmental impact of the spill, from the river to the littoral. Key findings include the chronic exposure of the estuary to mining pollutants, with specific contaminants escaping retention processes and altering the metal background levels in the Gulf of Cádiz. This study highlights the need for effective control measures in historical abandoned mining districts worldwide to prevent similar environmental disasters in the future.
PB Elsevier
SN 0269-7491
SN 1873-6424 (electrónico)
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25209
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25209
LA eng
NO Pérez-López, R., Cánovas, C. R., Macías, F., Basallote, M. D., Freydier, R., Olías, M., & Nieto, J. M. (2025). Tracing acid mine drainage from an accidental spill on the Estuary of Huelva (SW Spain). In Environmental Pollution (Vol. 372, p. 126033). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126033
NO This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under the research projects TRAMPA (PID2020- 119196RB-C21) and DYNAMICO (PID2023-151504OB-I00) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. M. D. Basallote thanks the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) for the RYC2022-035326-I grant funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE+. We would also like to thank Dra. Sarah Michele Harmon for the editorial handling and three anonymous reviewers for the support and comments that significantly improved the quality of the original paper.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026