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

在沿海地区处置的历史废料越来越容易受到侵蚀和海水淹没的影响，包括沿诺森伯兰河流域地区海岸倾倒的约2000公顷未受保护的采矿废料。2023年10月18日至21日的巴贝特风暴非常不寻常，因为长时间的东风导致了异常高的海浪，平均高达40米，连续六次涨潮。这导致东北海岸线上的矿山废弃物受到广泛的海水淹没和侵蚀。该项目旨在利用达勒姆海岸的海岸垃圾场Seaham Beach作为案例研究地点，探索破坏性风暴对海岸垃圾场的地貌行为的影响，以及从重新移动的材料中进入邻近生态系统的潜在污染通量。现在迫切需要对这些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，(2)巴贝特风暴期间污染金属进入北海的绝对通量，以及(3)风暴事件对邻近海滩环境的中短期影响。鉴于这些海滩上沉积的废物的地貌和地球化学性质的迅速变化（例如，由于新暴露的废物氧化），现在迫切需要进行这项研究，而废物的最重大变化及其动员的影响是最明显的。这些信息将有助于地方和国家利益攸关方了解类似的未受保护的沿海废物的潜在行为及其对近岸海洋群落的可能影响。更广泛地说，这些数据将评估沉积物侵蚀如何对气候变化引起的更强烈的风暴事件作出反应，可能导致废物动员增加；这些资料对于重新评价海岸线管理计划，包括考虑改善海防是至关重要的。

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.