U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings of the Technical Meeting Charleston South Carolina March 8-12,1999--Volume 1 of 3--Contamination From Hard-Rock Mining, Water-Resources Investigation Report 99-4018A

Use of multi-parameter sensitivity analysis to determine relative importance of factors influencing natural attenuation of mining contaminants

By Jungyill Choi, Judson W. Harvey, and Martha H. Conklin

This report is available in pdf format: Choi.pdf 146KB

ABSTRACT

Combining multi-Parametric Sensitivity Analysis (MPSA) with stream transport modeling is proposed to determine the relative importance of physical and biogeochemical processes controlling natural attenuation of contaminants. The MPSA is based on a large number of Monte-Carlo simulations to identify the sensitive parameters over a broad range of each parameter. This combined approach is applied to the transport of a mining contaminant, dissolved manganese in Pinal Creek basin, Arizona. The MPSA results show that transport of dissolved Mn(II) in Pinal Creek is controlled mainly by ground-water inflow, resulting spatial variation of pH in stream water, and the effect of pH on microbially mediated Mn(II) oxidation in the hyporheic zone.