Upper Arkansas Toxic-Substances Hydrology
Science Center Objects
Since 1986, the USGS Hard-Rock Mining Toxic-Substances Hydrology Project has focused on metal transport in streams affected by mining.
The approach is to study chemical processes within a hydrologic context, using a two-step approach:
- First, the USGS used instream experimentation to provide data about the processes affecting metals.
- Second, the USGS used the resulting data sets to develop and apply solute transport models to help quantify rates and processes.
Tracer-injection studies in St. Kevin Gulch, near Leadville, Colorado, helped the USGS design methods to characterize loading from mining activities on a watershed scale. Tracer-injection studies were done in 1995, in support of the planning needs of ederal Land Management Agencies, and as part of the USGS Abandoned Mine Land Initiative.
OBJECTIVES:
- To characterize the instream chemical processes that control the transport and transformation of metals downstream from mine drainage.
- To use tracer-injection methods to evaluate remediation efforts in selected basins.
- To quantify the time and length scales of chemical and hydrologic processes that affect the metals through development of solute-transport models.
- To characterize the chemistry of colloids, sediment, and bed sediments that are active in controlling the dissolved concentrations of metals.
Additional information and project results are available at:
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Date published: August 7, 2018Status: CompletedUpper Arkansas River Basin Toxics and Synoptic Studies
From 1986 to 2001, the Upper Arkansas Toxics Project focused on metal transport in streams affected by mining. Studies were conducted to quantify the physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting trace metal fate and transport.
Contacts: Katie Walton-Day -
Date published: October 1, 2002Status: CompletedSources of Metal Loading to the Lake Fork from Turquoise Lake to the confluence with the Arkansas River
The Lake Fork emerges from the outlet of Turquoise Lake at the Sugarloaf dam and flows approximately 5 miles before joining the upper Arkansas River. The first reach of the Lake Fork downstream from the dam is affected by drainage from abandoned mines in the Sugarloaf mining district. Whereas remediation of some of the mine sites has been initiated, Federal Land holders are interested in...
Contacts: Katie Walton-DayAttribution: Region 7: Upper Colorado Basin, Colorado Water Science Center
Synoptic sampling and principal components analysis to identify sources of water and metals to an acid mine drainage stream
Combining the synoptic mass balance approach with principal components analysis (PCA) can be an effective method for discretising the chemistry of inflows and source areas in watersheds where contamination is diffuse in nature and/or complicated by groundwater interactions. This paper presents a field-scale study in which synoptic sampling and PCA...
Byrne, Patrick; Runkel, Robert L.; Walton-Day, Katie Hydrogeochemical effects of a bulkhead in the Dinero mine tunnel, Sugar Loaf mining district, near Leadville, Colorado
The Dinero mine drainage tunnel is an abandoned, draining mine adit near Leadville, Colorado, that has an adverse effect on downstream water quality and aquatic life. In 2009, a bulkhead was constructed (creating a mine pool and increasing water-table elevations behind the tunnel) to limit drainage from the tunnel and improve downstream water...
Walton-Day, Katherine; Mills, Taylor J. Pre- and post-remediation characterization of acid-generating fluvial tailings material
The upper Arkansas River south of Leadville, Colorado, USA, contains deposits of fluvial tailings from historical mining operations in the Leadville area. These deposits are potential non-point sources of acid and metal contamination to surface- and groundwater systems. We are investigating a site that recently underwent in situ remediation...
Smith, Kathleen S.; Walton-Day, Katherine; Hoal, Karin O.; Driscoll, Rhonda L.; Pietersen, K. Use of an intact core and stable-metal isotopes to examine leaching characteristics of a fluvial tailings deposit
The upper Arkansas River south of Leadville, Colorado, USA, contains deposits of fluvial tailings from historical mining operations in the Leadville area. These deposits are possible non-point sources of acid and metal contamination to surface- and ground-water systems. We used stable-metal isotopes to help ascertain metal retention and release...
Ranville, James F.; Smith, Kathleen S.; Lamothe, Paul J.; Jackson, Brian P.; Walton-Day, Katherine