Watershed Contamination from Hard Rock Mining

Watersheds affected by active and/or abandoned hard rock mining (HRM) often have hundreds of mining-related sites with little information on their relative significance as sources of metals contamination and acid mine drainage. Furthermore, natural weathering of the geologic deposits, which are sought out for metal deposits, can be a source of contamination even in the absence of mining activities. The nature of such distributed natural and anthropogenic sources makes a traditional site by site cleanup approach grossly inefficient and likely ineffective.

The overall goal of HRM research is to provide improved information and tools to support decisions related to management, risk assessment, remediation planning, and mitigation of the anthropogenic effects of mine drainage on the surrounding watersheds and ecosystems. The principal research objectives are to a) characterize hydrologic and biogeochemical processes that affect dispersal of metals and associated contaminants and b) describe contaminant pathways to organisms. Current research expands on previous Toxic Substances Hydrology (Toxics) Program hard rock research by including investigations across broader temporal and spatial scales and by integrating research on bioaccumulation and the effects of metal contamination on organisms with investigations on biogeochemical and hydrologic processes that affect transport and fate of metals in streams and near-stream ground-water systems. Two guiding principles of the research are (1) interdisciplinary coordination to integrate all factors and processes that control the affects of HRM on watersheds and ecosystems from source to receptors, and (2) synthesis of interdisciplinary knowledge across scales to make relevant to the practical management decision making, including liaison with land management agencies for technology transfer and effective identification of science needs.

Project activities are undertaken in watersheds with various types of climate, hydrogeology and mining techniques:

Hardrock Mining in Rocky Mountain Terrain -- Upper Arkansas River, Colorado

Hardrock Mining in Southwest Alluvial Basins -- Pinal Creek, Arizona

Ground-Water Contamination by Heavy Metals -- Tar Creek, Oklahoma

USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative -- Upper Animas River Watershed, Colorado, and Boulder River Watershed, Montana

Arsenic Contamination from Hard Rock Mining -- Whitewood Creek-Belle Fourche River, South Dakota [Completed]

The Summitville Mine and its Downstream Effects [Completed]

Program Headlines on Hard Rock Mining Related Research

• Estimating the Uncertainty of Contaminant Loads in Mined Watersheds
• Improving Subsurface Uranium Cleanup Methods
• Mineral Particles are a Source of Dietary Metal in Streams
• New Approach for Evaluating Fish Metal Toxicity
• Evaluating Acid Mine Drainage Cleanup Strategies
• Chemical Geology Highlights Importance of Diel Processes in Rivers and Lakes
• Tools to Define Pre-Mining Water-Quality Restoration Targets
• Fish Exposed to Daily Cycles of Dissolved Metals Show Lower Mortality Rates
• Biofilms in Streams Help Create Daily Variations in Metal Concentrations
• How Do Contaminants Mix at the Confluence of Streams
• Mercury Concentrations in Streams Found to Go Through Daily Cycles
• Importance and Causes of Daily Variation in Metal Concentrations in Streams
• Multidisciplinary Approach to Remediating Watersheds Contaminated from Abandoned Mine Lands
• Daily Variation of Metals in Streams Can Confound Scientific Studies
• USGS Develops New Field Method for Detecting Chromium VI in Ground Water
• Tracer Tests Steer Cleanup of Mined Watersheds
• Relying on Nature to Cleanup Contaminated Ground Water
• Cleaning up Contamination in Hard Rock Mine Lands
• USGS Scientists Contribute to the Landmark "Treatise on Geochemistry"
• Nature's Way of Cleaning Up Mining-Contaminated Streams

Other Program Hard Rock Mining Research

• Diel Cycling of Trace Metals in Streams
• Coupled Transport and Geochemical Processes Determining the Fate of Chemicals in Surface Waters
• Chemical Modeling of Acid Waters
• Benthic Flux of Metals and Nutrients Project
• Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
• Lahonton Reservoir, Nevada
• Camp Far West Reservoir, California
• Nitrogen Cycling in Acid-Impacted Streams
• Toxics Program - Metal Release, Transport, and Attenuation in Mined Areas: Mechanisms and Implications for Remediation and Land-Use Strategies
• Analytical Environmental Trace Element Chemistry and Its Impact on Water Quality
• Load Estimator (LOADEST): A Program for Estimating Constituent Loads in Streams and Rivers

Fact Sheets

• Environmental Effects of Historical Mining in the Boulder River Watershed, Montana: USGS Fact Sheet 2005-3148
• Diurnal Variation in Trace-Metal Concentrations in Streams: USGS Fact Sheet FS-86-03
• Mercury Contamination from Historic Gold Mining in California: USGS Fact Sheet FS-061-00
• Research on Acidic Metal Contaminants in Pinal Creek Basin near Globe, Arizona: USGS Fact Sheet FS-005-97
• The USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative--Protecting and Restoring the Environment near Abandoned Mine Lands: USGS Fact Sheet 095-99
• Use of Tracer Injections and Synoptic Sampling to Measure Metal Loading from Acid Mine Drainage: USGS Fact Sheet FS-245-96

Meetings and Conferences

• USGS and Montana Tech of the University of Montana co-sponsor the Special Session Diurnal Biogeochemical Processes in Rivers, Lakes, and Shallow Groundwater at the 2009 GSA Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, October 18-21, 2009

New Publications

Upcoming Publications

• Bioavailability and bioaccumulation of metal based engineered nanomaterials (Me-ENMs) in aquatic environments--Concepts and processes (Chapter 5): Luoma, S.N., Khan, F., and Croteau, M.-N., in Lead, J., and Valsami-Jones, E., eds., Nanoscience and the Environment, Elsevier, ISBN:9780080994086 (IN PRESS).
• Effects and quantification of acid runoff from sulfide-bearing rock deposited during construction of highway E18, Norway: Hindar, A., and Nordstrom, D.K., Applied Geochemistry (IN PRESS).
• Experimental studies to characterize uranium sequestration during biostimulated reduction and in response to the return of oxic conditions in shallow aquifers: Fuller, C.C., Johnson, K.J., Akstin, K.C., Singer, D.M., Yabusaki, S.B., Fang, Y., and Fuhrmann, M., U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NUREG/CR-7178 (IN PRESS).
• Diel cycling of trace elements in streams draining mineralized areas--A review: Gammons, C.H., Nimick, D.A., and Parker, S.R., Applied Geochemistry, doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2014.05.008 (IN PRESS).
• Biogeochemical aspects of uranium mineralization, mining, milling, and remediation: Campbell, K.M., Gallegos, T.J., and Landa, E.R., in Environmental Geochemistry for Modern Mining--Reviews in Economic Geology, Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) (IN PRESS).

Newly Published

• Mercury concentrations and distribution in soil, water, mine waste leachates, and air in and around mercury mines in the Big Bend region, Texas, USA: Gray, J.E., Theodorakos, P.M., Fey, D.L., and Krabbenhoft, D.P., 2014, Environmental Geochemistry and Health, doi:10.1007/s10653-014-9628-1 (Advanced Web release).
• Use of natural and applied tracers to guide targeted remediation efforts in an acid mine drainage system, Colorado Rockies, USA: Cowie, R., Williams, M.W., Wireman, M., and Runkel, R.L., 2014, Water (Switzerland), v. 6, no. 4, p. 745-777, doi:10.3390/w6040745.
• Processes of zinc attenuation by biogenic manganese oxides forming in the hyporheic zone of pinal creek, Arizona: Fuller, C.C., and Bargar, J.R., 2014, Environmental Science and Technology, v. 48, no. 4, p. 2165-2172, doi:10.1021/es402576f.

Links to other USGS Information on Hard Rock Mining Contamination

• USGS Mine Drainage Activities
• Hands-On Experiments to Test for Acid Mine Drainage
• Mine Waste Characterization
• USGS Mining-Environment Studies
• Development of Mineral Environmental Assessment Methodologies
• Bear-Yuba Abandoned Mine Lands: Interagency project on mercury from gold mining areas
• Arsenic Studies Group
• USGS Energy Resources Program - U.S. Coal Quality Database