Some Polish coal mines are reviewed with respect to the disposal of sa
line wastewater into rivers and its environmental impact. The drainage
water from mines has a daily contribution of, in the order of magnitu
de, 6,500 tons chlorides (Cl-) and 0.5 tons sulphates (SO42-) to the r
ivers Wisla and Odra. The river Wisla contributes to about 55 % of the
water resources in Poland. This report is based on a part of a commis
sion for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, National Resources
and Forestry of Poland by COWI-VBB VIAK joint venture. Different treat
ment and disposal schemes are described and compared from a technical-
economical point of view, out of which methods for desalination with z
ero discharge as well as deep well injection are the most promising on
es. The desalination methods include reverse osmosis (RO) plant, therm
al powered desalination and crystallization plant as well as facilitie
s for dewatering and drying of sodium chloride (NaCl) to be sold in Po
land and/or on the export market, The valuable main products are potab
le water, boiler feed water and sodium chloride. A special problem in
this connection may be the radioactivity in the wastewater from some o
f the mines. Special treatment methods for radioactivity removal in th
e selected treatment and disposal scheme for the mine wastewater are d
iscussed with respect to the effects of radioactivity on the saleabili
ty of the recovered salt. In addition methods for recovery of the by-p
roducts magnesium hydroxide, iodine and bromine are considered from th
e point of view of economy and environmental protection. Finally, the
desalination project in Katowice for the coal mines Debiensko and Budr
yk is now in the end of the construction phase. Some modifications of
the original design ace shown.