Microbial Technologies, Inc. reviewed the environmental chemistry of selenium and technologies for its treatment at three mountain coal mines in West-Central Alberta. These mines have recently...
Description
Microbial Technologies, Inc. reviewed the environmental chemistry of selenium and technologies for its treatment at three mountain coal mines in West-Central Alberta. These mines have recently been shown to release selenium to adjacent water bodies, resulting in its uptake into the food chain. Based on limited data from the Alberta mines, selenium is found in the dissolved form (mostly as selenate) in surface waters, a form that from a chemical perspective is relatively unreactive. Selanate can be reduced to selenite, a form more readily removed (chemically) from solution, or (biologically) to elemental selenium, an insoluble form. Currently, the expected duration of selenium release at the Alberta coal mines is not known.