StormFlux: Effect of Storm Babet on Pollution Fluxes from Remobilised Mine Wastes

在沿海地区处置的历史废弃物越来越容易通过侵蚀和海水淹没而重新流动，包括沿着Northumbrian河流域区海岸倾倒的约2000公顷未受保护的采矿废弃物。2023年10月18日至21日的风暴巴贝（英语：Storm Babet）是一场极不寻常的风暴，因为持续的东风在连续六次高潮中造成了平均超过4米的巨浪。这导致东北海岸线上的矿山废物受到广泛的海水泛滥和侵蚀的影响。该项目旨在使用Seaham海滩，一个沿海垃圾场的有限公司达勒姆海岸，作为一个案例研究的位置，探讨破坏性风暴对沿海垃圾场的地貌行为的影响，以及潜在的污染通量到邻近的生态系统从再动员的材料。现在迫切需要对这种新暴露的废物进行取样和分析，同时进一步测量地貌变化，以确定（1）新暴露的废物的污染潜力和地球化学性质，（2）巴贝风暴期间污染金属流入北海的绝对通量，以及（3）风暴事件对邻近海滩环境的短期至中期影响。鉴于这些海滩沉积废物的地貌和地球化学性质迅速变化（例如，新暴露的废物氧化），现在迫切需要进行这项研究，而废物的最显著变化及其动员的影响最为明显。这一信息将有助于向地方和国家利益攸关方通报类似的未受保护的沿海废物的潜在行为及其对近岸海洋社区可能产生的影响。更一般地说，这些数据将评估沉积物侵蚀，以应对气候变化引起的更强烈的风暴事件，可能导致废物流动增加;这一信息对于重新评估海岸线管理计划至关重要，包括考虑改善海防。

Historical wastes disposed in coastal zones are increasingly vulnerable to remobilisation via erosion and seawater inundation including ~2000 Ha of unprotected mining wastes dumped along the Northumbrian River Basin District Coast. Storm Babet, 18-21 Oct 2023, was highly unusual in that prolonged easterly winds caused extraordinarily high waves averaging >4m for six consecutive high tides. This led to mine wastes on the NE coastline being affected by extensive seawater flooding and erosion. This project aims to use Seaham Beach, a coastal waste site on the Co. Durham coast, as a case study location to explore the impact of damaging storms on coastal waste sites in terms of geomorphological behaviour, and potential pollution fluxes into adjacent ecosystems from the remobilised material. There is now an urgent need to sample and analyse this freshly exposed waste, alongside further measurements of geomorphic change, to determine (1) the pollution potential and geochemistry of the newly exposed waste, (2) the absolute flux of contaminant metals to the North Sea that occurred during Storm Babet, and (3) the short- to medium- term impacts of the storm event on adjacent beach environments. Given the rapidly changing geomorphic and geochemical nature of these beach-deposited wastes (e.g. as newly exposed wastes oxidise), there is a pressing need to undertake this research now, while the most significant changes to the waste, and impacts from its mobilisation, are most evident. This information will help inform local and national stakeholders on the potential behaviour of similar unprotected coastal wastes and their possible impacts on nearshore marine communities. More generally the data will assess how sediment erosion, in response to more intense storm events due to climate change, may lead to increasing waste mobilisation; this information is vital for re-evaluation of shoreline management plans, including consideration of improved sea defences.