Förutsättningar för hantering av länshållningsvatten från tunnelproduktion i byggandet av Ostlänken : Återanvändning av näringsämnen genom bevattning

Sammanfattning

When a tunnel is built in rock, a type of water is formed as a residual product. This tunnel wateris formed due to construction processes such as drilling requiring water and groundwater thatinfiltrates into the tunnel. The water can cause environmental damage if it is released directlyinto nature and needs to be treated. Usually, therefore, the water is purified regardingconcentrations of suspended matter, oil, metals, nitrogen and basic pH values. In this degree project water analysis data, after a local purification in the tunnel area, has beenobtained from 17 different tunnel projects and processed to look into the water quality in theseprojects. The parameters from the analysis data processed are the concentrations of nitrogen,arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, zinc, chloride, and suspended matter aswell as pH value and conductivity. The results show a large variation in the average valuesbetween the projects and also that a flocculation step in the purification lowers the averageconcentrations for most metals. An analysis of the suitability of using tunnel water for irrigation and fertilization purposes hasalso been carried out by examining the differences in the characteristics of tunnel watercompared to irrigation and fertilizer sources. The result shows that the average concentrationsof the metals chromium and nickel exceed the average concentrations found in groundwaterand surface water in several projects. This means that the tunnel water with respect to thesetwo metals differs from natural sources of irrigation water. According to FAO's guidelines forirrigation water, the average chloride content and average conductivity of the tunnel water isalso elevated and means that the use of the water for irrigation may need to be partly limited.However, this influence needs to be investigated more for Swedish conditions