POOR WATER QUALITY FOUND IN REMOTE ARCTIC OCEAN ARCHIPELAGO

The International Territories of Svalbard is an archipelago between 78 and 81° N. The archipelago is composed of nine main islands totaling 62,700 km2. While remote, about 5% of the islands have been excavated for coal since the 1920’s; many of the mining sites were left abandon.

This project conducted water quality assessments where active mining is still occurring (Longyearbyn, 78.2232°N, 15.6267°E) and where mining was seized in the town of Pyramiden (78.6561°N, 16.3449°E) in 1988. Nine parameters were tested for at 15 locations because they are essential in calculating a Water Quality Index (WQI) value. The nine parameters include: pH, temperature, fecal coliform, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, nitrates, total phosphates, turbidity, total solids. The WQI is a unit less number ranging from 1 to 100 that reflects the overall health of a system by assigning weighted values to the aforementioned nine parameters. A higher WQI number is indicative of better water quality (100-90 is deemed excellent water quality, for example). Although the water may be deemed excellent in rural parts of the island (average WQI=98%), those areas adjacent to closed coalmines showed signs of degradation (average WQI =51%) and contamination (namely, iron sulfide resulting from acid mine drainage).

To-date, this type of baseline dataset has never been collected for Svalbard. This project is timely because as the International Territory considers its economic future of mining or tourism, the WQI can act as a straightforward way of communicating changes in watershed health to stakeholders.