Chemistry of Uncontaminated Alluvial Deposits of the Cheyenne and Belle Fourche Rivers, South Dakota
Project Period: 2009-10
Cooperators: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Project Chief: John Stamm
Executive Summary
The Sioux Indians of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation maintain their culture and traditions with a strong nexus to the Cheyenne River and the resources it provides. This water resource is crucial to their traditional worship practices and ways of life, even today. In 1944, Tribal lands along the Missouri and Cheyenne Rivers were acquired by the U.S. Government under the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program and in 1959 much of that land was flooded to create the reservoir for Oahe Dam. The Water Resource Development Act of 1999 (amended in 2000) returns to the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Sioux Tribes lands managed by the U.S. Army Corps. Section 602 (j) of the Act requires a sedimentation study be conducted not later than 10 years after the date of enactment of P.L. 106-53, prior to transfer of lands. The Secretary of the Army shall: (A) complete a study of sediment contamination in the Cheyenne River, and (B) take appropriate remedial action to eliminate any public health and environmental risk posed by the contaminated sediment.
Objectives
The objective of this project is to document concentrations of metals and metalloids in sediment that existed prior to the impact of mining and other sources of contamination in the Cheyenne River. These data provide estimates of "background" or "uncontaminated" levels in alluvial sediment as transported by the Cheyenne River to the Reservation. Several proposed sites are located on alluvial terraces that pre-date mining activity in the Black Hills. Alluvial terraces with well exposed gravels are commonly several hundred feet above the active channel in the lower part of the Cheyenne River and are estimated to be late-Pleistocene to Holocene deposits. Ages of deposits will be determined using radiocarbon (if organic material is preserved) and/or optically stimulated luminescence (quartz and feldspars in sands).
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
Below are publications associated with this project.
Late Quaternary stream piracy and strath terrace formation along the Belle Fourche and lower Cheyenne Rivers, South Dakota and Wyoming
Concentrations of selected metals in Quaternary-age fluvial deposits along the lower Cheyenne and middle Belle Fourche Rivers, western South Dakota, 2009-10
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
Project Period: 2009-10
Cooperators: Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Project Chief: John StammExecutive Summary
The Sioux Indians of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation maintain their culture and traditions with a strong nexus to the Cheyenne River and the resources it provides. This water resource is crucial to their traditional worship practices and ways of life, even today. In 1944, Tribal lands along the Missouri and Cheyenne Rivers were acquired by the U.S. Government under the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program and in 1959 much of that land was flooded to create the reservoir for Oahe Dam. The Water Resource Development Act of 1999 (amended in 2000) returns to the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Sioux Tribes lands managed by the U.S. Army Corps. Section 602 (j) of the Act requires a sedimentation study be conducted not later than 10 years after the date of enactment of P.L. 106-53, prior to transfer of lands. The Secretary of the Army shall: (A) complete a study of sediment contamination in the Cheyenne River, and (B) take appropriate remedial action to eliminate any public health and environmental risk posed by the contaminated sediment.
Objectives
The objective of this project is to document concentrations of metals and metalloids in sediment that existed prior to the impact of mining and other sources of contamination in the Cheyenne River. These data provide estimates of "background" or "uncontaminated" levels in alluvial sediment as transported by the Cheyenne River to the Reservation. Several proposed sites are located on alluvial terraces that pre-date mining activity in the Black Hills. Alluvial terraces with well exposed gravels are commonly several hundred feet above the active channel in the lower part of the Cheyenne River and are estimated to be late-Pleistocene to Holocene deposits. Ages of deposits will be determined using radiocarbon (if organic material is preserved) and/or optically stimulated luminescence (quartz and feldspars in sands).
- Multimedia
Below are multimedia items associated with this project.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Late Quaternary stream piracy and strath terrace formation along the Belle Fourche and lower Cheyenne Rivers, South Dakota and Wyoming
Stream piracy substantially affected the geomorphic evolution of the Missouri River watershed and drainages within, including the Little Missouri, Cheyenne, Belle Fourche, Bad, and White Rivers. The ancestral Cheyenne River eroded headward in an annular pattern around the eastern and southern Black Hills and pirated the headwaters of the ancestral Bad and White Rivers after ~ 660 ka. The headwaterAuthorsJohn F. Stamm, Robert R. Hendricks, J. Foster Sawyer, Shannon Mahan, Brent J. Zaprowski, Nicholas M. Geibel, David C. AzzoliniConcentrations of selected metals in Quaternary-age fluvial deposits along the lower Cheyenne and middle Belle Fourche Rivers, western South Dakota, 2009-10
The headwaters of the Cheyenne and Belle Fourche Rivers drain the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, an area that has been affected by mining and ore-milling operations since the discovery of gold in 1875. A tributary to the Belle Fourche River is Whitewood Creek, which drains the area of the Homestake Mine, a gold mine that operated from 1876 to 2001. Tailings discharged into Whitewood CreeAuthorsJohn F. Stamm, Galen K. Hoogestraat - Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.