Limestone remediation

borrowed a soil condition measurer from a friend in my local village…. the results proved that the spoil is fairly acidic and also explains why the vegetation growing there is mainly those that can colonise low nutrient soil – ie without many nitrates and phosphates

marking the locations I took soil measurements

(extract explaining the use of limestone – or more accurately, ground lime… but Limestone still holds the same remediatory properties.

Williams and Chadwick (1977) addressed the problems of seasonal fluctuations of plant available nutrients in acid spoil material, where macronutrients may be low and toxicity levels high. They state that such ations may have considerable significance in the establishment and survival of vegetation, and that the effects of these fluctuations may be even greater in the surface layers of the spoil because of the variation in spoil temperature and moisture. Their study of Mitchell’s Main colliery spoil heap in south Yorkshire showed significant seasonal variations in the levels of several elements in acidic colliery spoil and that addition of limestone reduced both the concentration of these elements and the seasonal variation. It was concluded that the solubility of aluminium, manganese, copper, zinc and iron are closely controlled by soil pH. 

begun collecting limestones from near b y quarries… found the calcite crystals amongst the debris of the quarry walls, was instantly drawn to these whiter crystal-like objects as opposed to what I typically think of as limestone, pale greys and cream rocks.

the interest for me was more in the fact a substance of remediation for one extraction sites ‘waste’ lay in the waste of another extraction sites… in a mere 3 mile radius

upper circle is the site of acidic spoil, the lower circle is the site of remediatory stone.

I created the topographic, 3D map using QGIS

choreographies of remediation

reshaping how we view waste

spoil heaps are the visible landscapes carved out by our carbon based energy system. as we are yet to move away from these unimaginably damaging systems, how can looking at the waste remnants from these practices evolve how we interact with energy systems.

can new perspectives of waste and making these sites ‘precious’ shift out outlook towards invisible energy systems like during fossil fuels. carbon emissions are invisible whilst the waste product produced in extracting the material remain in a similarly invisible manner, blending intone background of the landscape whilst seating into our environments and causing prolonged and indirect visible damage (waterways/stunted vegetation growth/sliding onto civilian settlements).

making these sites visible through per formatively engaging with remediation.

REMEDIATION….

its means to heal or cure. this term does not just have to be one that is applied to practical human intervention to transform environmental circumstances so that they become less ‘hazardous’ to either humans are elements of a ecosystem that humans dream ‘in need of healing’.

this term can also be applied to a world view. to the human psyche. how can we heal our perspective on waste and the systems these wastes arise from?

on the one hand remediation is a practical process of prohibiting future discomfort to humans through soft and hard interventions.

on the other hand, remediation can be an act of learning. what choreographies of healing can I explore? sites where by humans have dumped what they deem ‘waste’ can be a site to form new relationships.

FROM RESOURCE TO RESOURCE

to allow these ‘zones of waste’ to recolonise and create their own systems out from the terraforming foundation of which humans make for them, we can engage with creating theses circumstances. soil acidity is a problem for vegetation growth and colonisation of roots. Lime is an alkaline agent and can be derived from limestone. in a 3 mile radius from these ancient sites of extraction are these holes of constant rock extraction. one extraction aids the return of an another waste.

these rocks could be collected and disseminated in a performative act of remediation. a dance of remediation. the future of human existence on gia will much revolve around undoing catastrophic damage and innovating ways to allow our environments to reclaim themselves. what could these small acts look like? what choreography represents such an act of healing mentality?

PRECIOUS REMEDIATION

stones have long since been highly regarded in extraction value systems. the precious stone sits on jewellery and on royalty and holds sentimental value for those that hand them down through generations. the act of making a stone precious – its polishing.

this act of love and value can be applied to the soft systems of remediating our landscapes.

25/03/21 – compiling the carbon scape network…

steel works

hydrogen and electricity planst

clay

coal tar – cosmetics / paper mulch / pigments

re shales – buildings / construction

fossils

material based collective action – weight resulting in mass political organisms

fungi / bacteria

calcium / heavy metal tolerant plants

heating from mining voids under large percentage of the uk

human signatures / petitions

soldier flys

politicians

environmentalists

conductivity

worms

pyrite

limestone

protest groups

spoil heap monuments

tufa springs

landslides affecting railways

birch trees / legumes

coal authority website

…..

an thing for each letter of the alphabet…. perhaps including soundscapes also… maybe the vowels? in order to create a sort of story / collage as you engage with the issue of the ups carbon based energy system..

could signing or ‘typing’ a name generate a story of the carbonscape? the disjointed and disparate nature of an online petition could instead be the format in which you generate a new understanding and engagement with the sprawling network of the UK’s carbon based energy system… instead of finding ways to create collective engagement it would foster a new type of engagement beyond the human and towards the broader nature-culture.

24/03/21 – informative objects engaging with different non-human scales

I could potentially create objects that inform actions that performatively engage with the specific actors at the site….

I think a series of objects would be effective in creating an over view of the different and latent entanglements of non-human and would allow me access a variety of scales.

these could be either physical scales or temporal ones.

there are various interesting elements to spoil heaps that I could investigate through objects

  • chemical make up of the soils and the pyrite oxidation causes the soil to have high acidity levels (this can be treated with self remediations using substances such as lime – or limestone….)
  • this leads to the soil having a high conductivity (from the salinity result from the sulphate oxidations)
  • species that thrive in calcium high conditions (special mosses and other vegetation leading to rare invertebrates etc)
  • fossils are exposed from the deep extraction of latent geological phenomenon
  • recolonised earth leading to burrows and complete reclamation

PHYSCIAL SCALES

bacteria, chemical / vegetal / small animals

molecules of pyrite / route structure of

TEMPORAL SCALES

conductivity of ions / vegetal growth / fossils…

this would allow me to make ‘informative objects’, scale diagrams and maps, and perhaps even sound pieces that could play with this warping of the experience of time and in tern sound vibrations…

24/03/21 – site?

struggling to find the specific sites suitable for my interventions.

Hatfield and Bradsworth colliery in south yorkshire…

I have phoned quite a few numbers but have just been given emails. It would be really useful to talk to actual experts and to know how likely it is for me to be able to access the sites (if thats something I would like to do)

conductivity of spoil heaps

is there a way to use this conductivity to engage with the earth in new ways?

Salinity and conductivity measure the water’s ability to conduct electricity, which provides a measure of what is dissolved in water. In the SWMP data, a higher conductivity value indicates that there are more chemicals dissolved in the water.

Conductivity measures the water’s ability to conduct electricity. It is the opposite of resistance. Pure, distilled water is a poor conductor of electricity. When salts and other inorganic chemicals dissolve in water, they break into tiny, electrically charged particles called ions. Ions increase the water’s ability to conduct electricity. Common ions in water that conduct electrical current include sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium. Because dissolved salts and other inorganic chemicals conduct electrical current, conductivity increases as salinity increases. Organic compounds, such as sugars, oils, and alcohols, do not form ions that conduct electricity.

Why is Conductivity Important?Aquatic animals and plants are adapted for a certain range of salinity. Outside of this range, they will be negatively affected and may die. Some animals can handle high salinity, but not low salinity, while others can handle low salinity, but not high salinity.

Atmospheric CO2 Sequestration in Iron and Steel Slag: Consett, County Durham, United Kingdom

Carbonate formation in waste from the steel industry could constitute a nontrivial proportion of the global requirements for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a potentially low cost. To utilize this potential, we examined atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration in a >20 million ton legacy slag deposit in northern England, United Kingdom. Carbonates formed from the drainage water of the heap had stable carbon and oxygen isotope values between −12 and −25 ‰ and −5 and −18 ‰ for δ13C and δ18O, respectively, suggesting atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration in high-pH solutions. From the analyses of solution saturation states, we estimate that between 280 and 2900 tons of CO2 have precipitated from the drainage waters. However, by combining a 37 year long data set of the drainage water chemistry with geospatial analysis, we estimate that <1% of the maximum carbon-capture potential of the deposit may have been realized. This implies that uncontrolled deposition of slag is insufficient to maximize carbon sequestration, and there may be considerable quantities of unreacted legacy deposits available for atmospheric carbon sequestration.

24/03/21 why spoil heaps?

THE HILLS OF THE CARBONSCAPE

The uk carbonscapes is sprawling and complex. energy systems such as coal extraction and combustion leach into all realms of the uk nature culture (or the ‘human-non-human’)

I like the term human-non-human because of its visual symmetry and how it both describes what we as a species self identify as whilst simultaneously negating this singular definition as we are as mum non-human as we are human, we are networked within the vibrancy of all sorts of actors on a all sorts of physical and temporal scales.

extraction practices are a fascinating example of humans ability re-terraform our landscapes both visible and invisibly – mine shafts and colliery buildings are visible symptoms whilst vast voids lying amongst deep times geological architectures are invisible to most of us (whilst they most likely are a reason for the ground level temperature of large percentage of the uk).

spoil heaps emerge a man made architectures that are symbolic of the resources terraformation of our environments whilst being invisible, much like the empty coal seam itself. they blend into the backdrop or remoulded landscapes yet are volatile and dangerous objects that house the past present and future of social political and ecological informants.

they are actors of deaths and destruction. the kill and are killed. their life spans breach the human and these slow processes perhaps lead themselves to a non anthropocentric understanding of succession and ecological colonisation. what humans deem as waste is ‘dumped’ laying the foundations for new life to form.

how to move forwards with the heap? how to recognise its agency through a reconnection to the past’s of extraction to resist and innovate its future. how can I augment the value system of the heap. how can i augment the cartography of the heap through informed interaction.

how can i engage with these life spans an scales as an entry point into the sprawling carbonscape of my local environment?

will creating new links to the nonhuman actors of theses practices allow for new understandings of extraction?

RECLAIM THE HEAPS

how can a foster new relationships with the carbonscape in an effort to re-address human-non-human resource geographies. the heap is a disregarded waste at one point yet becomes a resource for the ecology that reclaims it.

how could objects inform performative engagement? can these objects and the human behaviour they humans inform become agents in a process of reclamation and remediation.

the walking gardener? performative wearing?