The consumption of sand for building has been highly increased in the last years in Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. The producers are in the search for alternatives to grow the production and reduce the environmental impacts, because the main source of industrial sand in the state is the rivers beds. This work proposes some measures concerning the reduction of the high turbidity in the stream waters affected by the mining activity. The treatment in the sedimentation basins in the area of sand production is proposed using aluminum sulphate, ferric chloride, chalk and a commercial cationic polymer as flocculants substances.
Water quality; turbidity; sand production
