Salazar Giraldo, Juan PabloHernández Ángel, Marta LucíaArango Ruiz, Álvaro de Jesús2011-06-022011-10-142012-03-29978-958-8406-12-1http://hdl.handle.net/10567/63Abstract: Mining in well known because it affects underground waters, an issue thathas been considered as a purely technical pumping problem to evacuate drain waters, but keeping environmental implications aside. Drain waters from mines are very polluting liquid effluents, given their high concentrations of solids, sulfates and dissolved metals. They are also associated to high acid levels, and this means that those waters have a great corrosive effect. These pollutants generate an important environmental damage when they reach water bodies, affecting the biota and the water availability. Acid drain waters from mines can be treated with physicochemical or biological processes for prevention, mitigation and control. Physicochemical treatments include the application of a neutralizing agent to remove acidity and a coagulant to promote the dissolved metals, minerals and other substance’s precipitation from the effluents. They are, however, expensive, and generate a great quantity of sludge, a fact that brings the problem of how to dispose them. Biological treatments use microorganisms or plants to degrade pollutants and reduce the acidity. They are a result of new technological developments that offers a cheaper, sustainable and practical alternative to treat this sort of waters with a high sulfate and metal removal percentage. The values achieved are above 90% in treatments with microorganisms such as Thiobacillus and Leptospirillum.esMineríaContaminaciónAguas residuales industrialesDrenaje ácido de minasCorporación Universitaria LasallistaGranja Avícola BuenavistaBook chapter