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Mining can lead to groundwater and surface water chemical pollution, as well as lowering groundwater tables and disrupted flows. These pressuresthreaten the status of water ecosystems well beyond business operations as discharge of pollutants is longer than the mine life-cycle. Measures which can be taken to address mining impacts on water resources (e.g. treatment and reuse of excess water, use of chemicals with low environmental impacts, barriers and drainage systems to protect groundwater) constitute generally the bulk of Best Available Techniques (BAT) to be implemented by the extractive industry. Interventions and principles are laid out in the EU Directive on the Management of Waste from Extractive Industries 2006/21/EC, which obliges firms to issue an extractive waste management plan (EWMP) in their licensing and permit applications. Acknowledging the impacts of mining on water resources and considering different measures to counteract these is now an integrated part of a variety of mining business activities (see Box 4).

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