Central Mineral Resources Team
A Regional Partnership Project: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) - Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - Bureau of Reclamation (BOR)
Photo of Mancos Shale Formation
The broad objectives of this project are (1) to use science to help define some of the issues requiring the attention of science, resource, and land-use managers who deal with black shale terrains, (2) to provide applicable, scientifically valid, information that can be used to formulate resource and land-use management policies for Mancos Shale landscapes and (3) to assure that the information provided is transportable/applicable to black shale landscapes that are not specifically studied. In some cases conflicting scientific data and interpretation cause difficulties in determining when an issue is a problem or not. For instance, there is debate about the toxic affects of selenium on fish communities in the Upper Colorado River Basin. This project or a related one will help to resolve that issue and, through on-going discussion between managers and scientists, will help to differentiate between those issues that are truly problematic and those that are not.
In the long-term, the project will contribute to the development of predictive models that can be used to evaluate black shale landscapes in terms of their economic resource potential and their environmental sensitivity. Short-term (5 year) objectives include:
Responsible stewardship of lands is a primary goal of many federal, state, and local government agencies as well as non-government organizations (NGO) and citizen groups. In western Colorado and eastern Utah much of that land is underlain by the Cretaceous Mancos Shale. During the last few decades, land use and water-quality issues related to Mancos Landscapes have risen in prominence in the West Slope area of Colorado and parts of eastern Utah. Many immediate issues of concern to land managers are related to specific, toxicants such as selenium and salinity. Scientifically defensible information is required by land managers in order to formulate responsible land-use management policies. Responsible stewardship and assessment of mineral and energy resources is also a primary goal of many organizations, including the USGS. To those ends, understanding the processes responsible for the concentration/dispersion and spatial distribution of environmentally sensitive elements (ESE) and economically important elements in the Mancos Shale is imperative.
Such an understanding will help appropriate organizations formulate policy to alleviate problems that result in a variety of negative impacts, several of which are within the purview of legislative actions. Currently, the primer problem is the salinity of the Colorado River, which results in an annual cost of approximately 330 million dollars (U.S. Department of the Interior, 2001). Apparently more than half of the salt load originates in the Upper Colorado River Basin and a significant portion of that load can be related to Mancos Shale landscapes. Selenium, thought to originate from the Mancos Shale, has lead to the non-compliance with the Clean Water Act of portions of the Uncompahgre River and tributaries (originating in the Grand Valley) of the Colorado River, resulting in the mandate that Se loading be reduced. Additionally, the Se is suspected of being a contributing cause of reduced populations of several endangered native Colorado fish species.
Improved understanding of metal and ESE sequestration in black shale sequences will help improve National and global assessments of mineral and energy resources. Large areas of the U.S. are underlain by black shale, some of which have been exploited for energy resources and to a limited extent for mineral resources. However, new concepts on the genesis of world-class, black shale-hosted, mineral deposits coupled with this project's anticipated contribution to understanding metal sources and the processes responsible for metal sequestration will facilitate improved mineral resource assessments. Further, an increased understanding of ESE and other trace element dispersion processes and the resulting geochemical patterns will aid in mineral exploration, resource assessment, and environmental assessments of black shale landscapes.
Much of this project's work directly addresses expressed needs of USGS science programs, data/information gaps and requests for input by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Services, the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program, and the Gunnison Basin Selenium Task Force.
Outcome from the mapping portion of this project is actively used to help constrain hypotheses describing the distribution and availability of contaminants such as Se and salinity that may be stratigraphically controlled. Additionally, the preliminary mapping has been used to guide geochemical sampling tasks and to aid in the definition of flight lines for a NASA flown Master (multispectral mapping of surface mineralogy) mission over the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (GGNCA).
Project members are working with local NGOs (on at least a monthly basis) to help understand the selenium issues related to both natural and anthropogenetic impacts on Mancos Shale landscapes. Paul von Guerard serves as a consultant to the Salinity Control Forum and is a member of their ad hoc selenium committee.
Richard Grauch | Box 25046 MS 973 Denver, CO 80225-0046 |
(303) 236-5551 Email Richard Grauch |
Mineral Resources | Eastern / Central / Western / Alaska / Minerals Information |
Crustal Imaging & Characterization / Spatial Data |