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In India, so far not much efforts have been made to use coal ash as backfill material in underground/ open cast mines and to predict its subsequent effect on ground water quality. One of the main problems in disposing of big quantities of coal ash is the possible leaching of different pollutants, including manganese. A thorough investigation regarding leaching of manganese from different fly ashes is required to know the impact of manganese due to its leaching from fly ash to ground water as well as surface water. In the present study, short term and long term leaching studies have been carried out on fly ash, bottom ash, pond ash and weathered ash of Chandrapura thermal power plant, Bokaro, Jharkhand and Ramagundam thermal power plant, Ramagundam, Andhra Pradesh. The amount of manganese released in different experiments has been evaluated. The leachate of Chandrapura fly ash has more manganese concentration (0.2001 mg/L) than the leachate of bottom ash, pond ash and weathered ash. A field investigation at Damoda abandoned open cast mine, filled with pond ash of Chandrapura thermal power plant revealed that concentration of manganese in ground water beneath the ash filled mine has been found very high (maximum up to 6.0 mg/L). But its migration to a long distance has not been seen. Remedial measures for coal ash disposal have also been formulated.

Fly ash is an industrial waste generated from thermal power plants. Fly ash constitutes 80-85% of the total ash produced. A small part of fly ash is utilised in some sectors such as construction materials, building engineering, road, back fill, agriculture, selective engineering and processing useful materials. A large part of fly ash produced is disposed of with very high environmental risk. In the present paper, laboratory leaching test has been used to determine the potential mobility of Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn and Ni in fly ash samples, collected from Chandrapura Thermal Power Plant, Jharkhand and Ramagundam Super Thermal Power Plant, Andhra Pradesh, in order to assess their leachability when these wastes are disposed of. A cascade-leaching test was used at liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S) ranging between 20 and 100. Both fly ash samples exhibited neutral reactions, as indicated by pH values <11.75 and >7.0 at L/S=10 and contact time of 10 minutes. The percentage of leached amounts found to follow the trend Zn>Fe>Mn>Cr>Pb>Cu>Ni>Cd for fly ash from Chandrapura and Fe>Zn>Cu>Mn>Cr>Ni>Pb>Cd for fly ash from Ramagundam. Effect of pH on metals released from ash surface in aqueous solution followed a predictable pattern of decreasing release with increasing pH.