Metals in streams come from acid mine drainage, like that from the Yankee Mine seen in the picture.

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Toxic Substances Hydrology Program - Metals and Hard-Rock Mining

Project Chief: Briant Kimball, USGS Salt Lake City, Utah
Cooperator:
Period of Project: February 1986 to continuous

Streams affected by acid, metal-rich drainage
usually have many sources of metals.
This large iron bog contributes a substantial
metal load to Red Mountain Creek, Colorado.

PROBLEM

Thousands of historical hard-rock mines exist across the Western United States. Mine dumps, tailing piles, and drainage from flood plains that contain mine wastes often contaminate the surrounding catchment and its ecosystems. Weathering of exposed unmined mineral deposits also results in acid drainage and metal-rich waters. The Toxic Substances Hydrology (TOXICS) Program brings together an interdisciplinary team of scientists to investigate biogeochemical and hydrologic processes that affect the migration of contamination from mined and un-mined sources within a catchment and its effects on the associated ecosystems. This research must be interdisciplinary because the effects on organisms, populations, and communities are determined by the complex interaction of hydrologic, geologic, chemical, and biological processes that control the source, transport, and fate of hard-rock mining (HRM) contaminants. These processes span a range of spatial and temporal scales from the overall catchment scale, to the stream reach scale, to the interfacial scale, and temporal scales ranging from seconds to months and years.

OBJECTIVES

Our ongoing research might reasonably fit into three of the new science strategies for the USGS. The following descriptions of current project work are grouped by those strategies.

Understanding Ecosystems - Ensuring the Environmental Future

“Through research ... advance understanding of ecosystem structure, function, patterns and processes ...”

Integrating biological, geochemical, and hydrological tools to evaluate stream recovery after remediation – Field work next summer has been planned to integrate hydrogeochemical  and biological studies of stream recovery. First, with respect to benthic invertebrates, we will compliment the work of Dan Cain and Michelle Hornberger (both USGS NRP Western Region) and on metal pathways of contamination – dietary versus exposure – with the loading and hydrologic setting. This initial field work together will attempt to help confirm laboratory model parameters to the field setting. Second, in collaboration with Bob Gresswell and Tom McMahon (USGS BRD) and their students we have planned a fish avoidance study in the same areas of Silver Bow Creek, MT. This will integrate the radio tagging of the biologists with the metal loading information to give them a context for their observations of which areas are avoided by the fish. If this is successful we may be able to work together on the Clark Fork in Montana the following year.

Energy and Minerals - Providing a Scientific Foundation

“USGS energy and minerals resource research will be broadened to contribute more comprehensively -environmental effects of resource use ..and management of natural resources ...”

We come to minerals research, not on the exploration side, but on the environmental side to understand the impacts of mineral extraction activities on the environment. Two current aspects of our research are linked to this strategy:

Isotope systematics to define catchment metal sources and processes – Our work with metal isotopes initially began with a Mendenall Postdoc, David Borrok (University of Texas, El Paso). Using a well-studied catchment from the AML Initiative, Prospect Gulch, we combined a mass-loading study with metal isotope variation to show how iron isotopes defined in-stream reactions and zinc isotopes define sources. In general, metal isotope variation holds great promise to improve our understanding of source and process questions, which are still very relevant to hard-rock mining research. Other aspects of this work are currently the focus of collaboration with Rich Wanty (USGS GD) with respect to precipitation of zinc minerals from mine drainage.

Integration of diel metal variation on quantifying metal sources in a catchment – Our collaboration with David Nimick (USGS MTWSC) and Chris Gammons (Montana Tech) has brought an understanding of the substantial variation of metal concentrations in near-neutral streams on a daily cycle. This has implications on how we evaluate the relative importance of multiple sources of metal loading in a catchment. Last summer we conducted a field experiment with David, headed by Rob Runkel and Katie Walton-Day (both of the USGS COWSC) to obtain a data set that would help us consider the effect of diel variation on loading profiles. Interpretation is in progress.

Water Census – Quantifying Freshwater

“The USGS will ... inform the public and decision makers about ...how freshwater availability is related to natural storage and movement of water ...”

Understanding the effects of stream-catchment exchange on solute mass balance – Another seemingly old question is still a matter of research. Collaborating with Ken Bencala (USGS NRP Western Region) we have improved our conceptual and experimental understanding of the exchange of water between streams and catchments. Our interest is the effect this has on solute loading to the streams because hyporheic zones can have substantial impact on processes affecting metals. Work with Ken and with Michael Gooseff (Penn State University) has “raised new questions, and new opportunities, with regard to estimation of channel flow with tracer injections. Our goal is to develop field methods to account for the ongoing exchanges of water and solutes between the stream and its catchment,” in the words of Ken Bencala. Thus, again, an old approach leading us into new questions.

A field laboratory provides a clean location to process and filter samples during a large synoptic sampling experiment.

RELEVANCE AND BENEFITS

Historical mining has left complex problems in catchments throughout the world. Land managers and regulators are faced with making cost-effective plans for remediation that provide the most benefit to streams. Many remediation plans for catchments throughout the western United States and in Europe have been facilitated by field-scale experiments that quantify mass-loading of metals. Spatially detailed mass-loading profiles indicate the principal sources, seasonal changes, and biogeochemical processes that affect metals in streams. Current research is toward improving the ability to simulate remediation options through reactive solute-transport modeling and to estimate pre-mining concentrations of metals in streams.

APPROACH

Our approach is to study chemical processes within an hydrologic context, using a two-step approach. First, we have employed in-stream experimentation to provide data about the processes affecting metals. The in-stream experiments generally have combined tracer-injection to quantify the hydrologic context, and synoptic sampling to provide detailed spatial information on inflows and in-stream chemical changes that result for the influence of inflows. Second, we have used reactive-transport modeling to test our understanding of processes. Modeling also has provided a useful tool to help land-management agencies evaluation options for remediation of mine drainage.

PRODUCTS

  Recent Publications

• Borrok, D.M., Wanty, R.B., Ridley, W.I., Lamothe, P.J., Kimball, B.A., Verplank, P.L., and Runkel, R.L., 2009, Application of iron and zinc isotopes to track the sources and mechanisms of metal loading in a mountain watershed, Applied Geochemistry, v. 24, p. 1270-1277, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2007.11.014.
• Bove, D.J., Walton-Day, Katherine, Kimball, B.A., 2009, The use of fluoride as a natural tracer and the relationship to geologic features: examples from the Animas River Watershed, San Juan Mountains, Colorado: Geochemistry, Exploration, Environment, and Analysis, v. 9, p. 125-138, http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/1467-7873/09-197.
• Kimball, B.A., and Runkel, R.L., 2009, Evaluating remediation alternatives for mine drainage, Little Cottonwood Creek, Utah, USA, Environmental Earth Sciences, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0240-0.
• Kimball, B.A., and Runkel, R.L., 2009, Spatially detailed quantification of metal loading for decision making: Metal mass loading to American Fork and Mary Ellen Gulch, Utah: Mine Water and the Environment, v. 28, no. 4, p. 274-290, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10230-009-0085-5.
• Kimball, B.A., Runkel, R.L., and Walton-Day, K., 2010, An approach to quantify sources, seasonal change, and biogeochemical processes affecting metal loading: Facilitating decisions for remediation of mine drainage: Applied Geochemistry, v. 25, no. 5, p. 728-740.
• Kimball, B.A., and Runkel, R.L., 2010, Evaluating remediation alternatives for mine drainage, Little Cottonwood Creek, Utah, USA: Environmental Earth Science, v. 60, p. 1021-1036.
• Kimball, B.A., Runkel, R.L., Wanty, R.B., and Verplanck, P.L., 2009, Reactive solute-transport simulation of pre-mining metal concentrations in mine-impacted catchments: Redwell Basin, Colorado, USA: Chemical Geology, v. 269, p. 124-136.
• Kimball, B.A., Runkel, R.L., and Gerner, L.J., 2009, Methods and basic data from mass-loading studies in American Fork, October 1999, and Mary Ellen Gulch, Utah, September 2000, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 443, 21 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/443/
• Runkel, R.L., Kimball, B.A., Steiger, J.I., and Walton-Day, K., 2009, Geochemical data for upper Mineral Creek, Colorado, under existing ambient conditions and during an experimental pH modification, August 2005: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 442, 41p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/442/
• Runkel, R.L., Bencala, K.E., Kimball, B.A., Walton-Day, K., and Verplanck, P.L., 2009, A Comparison of Pre- and Post-Remediation Water Quality, Mineral Creek, Colorado, Hydrological Processes, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7427

A complete bibliography for the project can be found at: http://toxics.usgs.gov/bib/bib-Mining.html