| Abstract: | A three‐year long lysimeter experiment with a fine‐grained aluminum (Al) recycling by‐product and a mixture of this by‐product and a coal combustion waste was conducted. The wastes were proposed as possible soil substitutes in an engineered surface barrier covering a potash mining residue mount. To evaluate the suitability of the wastes as surface barrier material, their hydrological behavior under field conditions must be known. Lysimeter experiments provide one means to study the hydrological behavior of soils or soil‐like materials. However, it is difficult to estimate the long‐term hydrological behavior from short‐term lysimeter studies. The present study was conducted therefore to derive from short‐term lysimeter observations the long‐term hydrological behavior of the two waste materials. The lysimeter data were used to calibrate the one‐dimensional soil water flow model HYDRUS‐1D. With the calibrated model, hydrological simulations for the site of the residue mount were carried out for a period of 31 yr. Calculated long‐term annual seepage from the lysimeters was 237 mm for the pure Al waste and 186 mm for the mixture, or 39% and 24% of the average annual precipitation (764 mm). The average discharge of the bare mount is 482 mm or 63%. We conclude that a soil cover could considerably reduce the discharge and that the mixture is better suited as surface barrier than the pure Al waste. |
