Evaluación del efecto de la minería de carbón sobre la calidad del agua de la Quebrada La Cucalina mediante la asociación de macroinvertebrados con parámetros fisicoquímicos, en el Municipio De Pamplonita, Norte De Santander Colombia.

Abstract

Benthic macroinvertebrates are organisms larger than 500 micrometers, perceptible to the naked eye and easy to collect, being present in lotic and lentic water bodies, exhibiting sedentary ethological characteristics, sensitive and tolerant to external disturbances such as mining. For this reason, the objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of coal mining on the water quality of the La Cucalina stream through the association of biotic indices and their close relationship with the physicochemical parameters present in legal mining activity. So 3 stations were surveyed; AG-AR (upstream of the mining leachate), LIX (mining leachate) and AG-AB (downstream of the mining leachate), in the dry season specifically on February 8 and 14, as well as on March 21, 2023, with a sampling effort of 660 minutes per day, taking with a multiparameter in situ variables of temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids and salinity, as well as ex situ color, turbidity, hardness, alkalinity, chlorides, phosphorus , nitrites, ammoniacal nitrogen, sulfate, total solids, total suspended solids, COD and BOD5 in the control and quality laboratory of the University of Pamplona. As a result, a total of 706 specimens were obtained distributed in four orders, eight families and nine genera, presenting highly differential diversity distributions in each station. The biotic indices, for their part, estimated acceptable contamination criteria for the AG-AR station according to the BMWP/Col method, compared to the AG-AB and LIX stations being in critical conditions. In conclusion, the study revealed a decrease in composition and structure of macroinvertebrates due to mining activities associated with changing physicochemical variables in the caudal trajectory.