Mining involves environmental challenges such as impacts on local ecosystems and potential water pollution. Modern mining operations are doing their part to minimize impacts, and environmental specialists like SCS Engineers can help design-build, then thoroughly operate and monitor programs, to minimize environmental impacts and help prevent accidents.
SCS provides engineering and geologic consulting services, specializing in mining, extraction, waste containment and hydrogeologic evaluation, geotechnical engineering, remediation, and stormwater management. Our SCS Field Services division handles dust and soil remediation challenges, and we provide sophisticated monitoring and tracer science services if needed.
SCS Engineers is involved in regional assessments of rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals across the United States. We support the process, science, and potential benefits of REE studies that aim to help meet the increasing demands. For example, we provide coal mines with additional markets for their product, and transition coal into feedstocks for the REE market.
SCS Engineers helps our mining industry clients by pre-planning projects with environmental
control measures and monitoring the effects of mining and rehabilitating mined areas. We manage interactions between constructed systems and ecosystems sustainably. Our methodology helps to reduce the impact of mining activities on nearby communities and helps to replenish the environment and the land.
For example:
Remediating Acid Mine Drainage – AMD, is a complex process that may require a combination of engineering, chemical, and biological techniques. This whitepaper explains the treatment technologies that our environmental engineers and consultants provide and the resources and direction some states are taking to address AMD.
SCS Energy, the energy services group of SCS Engineers, provided technical services for a planned 120-MW power plant to be fueled on coal bed methane (CBM)/coal mine methane (CMM). This project was developed by Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Coal Mining Group Co., Ltd., in the People’s Republic of China. SCS assisted in the development of a conceptual design for an optimal power plant configuration; the preparation of bidding documents; the evaluation of bids received; and the supervision and monitoring of the construction, commissioning, and initial operation of the power plant. Capture of methane emissions from coal mining operations, and its conversion to useful energy, results in three benefits: (1) recovering wasted energy; (2) reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; and (3) improvement of air quality in the region.
On another project, SCS professionals assisted with designing and constructing a soil bio-remediation facility for a large copper mine in northwestern Arizona. We analyzed waste stream characteristics for treatability; evaluated the need and low-cost alternatives for bioenhancement; developed standard operating procedures for waste stream characterization sampling, preparation, and treatment verification sampling; and met with facility operators to provide input for more efficient operation.
SCS provided Quality Assurance services for an EPA Region 10 Superfund Site in Kellogg, Idaho. We reviewed 4 of 5 years of this $170 million environmental cleanup of a 21-square-mile mining and smelting site to confirm compliance with EPA contractual and regulatory guidance and the contractor’s Quality Management System standards. We made recommendations to the Program Manager responsible for project planning, staffing, and coordination of multi-discipline design teams, budget, and schedule control, and evaluated remedial and contracting approaches for mining and ore processing-related contamination.
Click on each of the solution service areas below to read more about our mining and extraction services:
