Charles N Alpers
Since 1991, as a Research Chemist with USGS, Dr. Alpers has led numerous water-quality investigations involving the environmental effects of historical mining.
This work has included research on acid mine drainage at the Iron Mountain Superfund site, including documentation of negative-pH water and associated sulfate minerals. Since 1999, he has been lead scientist for several multi-disciplinary studies regarding mercury contamination, transport, and bioaccumulation associated with historical gold mining in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges of California. He is also investigating arsenic bioavailability and bioaccessibility in gold-mine waste at the Empire Mine in Grass Valley, California as part of a multi-disciplinary team involving USGS and non-USGS scientists.
The overarching theme of Dr. Alpers' research is the environmental geochemistry of metal contamination from historical mining. A secondary theme is the use of mineral deposits and areas contaminated by mining as laboratories for process-oriented research. His career has evolved from an emphasis on acid mine drainage (late 1980s to 2000) to an emphasis on mercury (since 2000) with growing interests in wetlands, arsenic, and lead.
Science and Products
Mercury
Mercury Methylation and Bioaccumulation in the Bear River Watershed
Monitoring Mercury and Methylmercury in Water, Sediment and Biota in Combie Reservoir Before and After Dredging and Mercury Removal
Lower American River Mercury
Wildfire Effect on Mercury Levels in Putah and Cache Creek Watersheds
Analysis of Factors Causing Mercury Impairment in Water Bodies of the Sierra Nevada, California
Mercury cycling, bioaccumulation, and risk across western North America: a landscape scale synthesis linking long-term datasets
Iron Mountain: An Extraordinary and Extreme Environment
Shallow Sediment Geochemistry in a Mercury-Contaminated Multi-Habitat Floodplain: Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California (version 2.0, August 2021)
Update of the Mineral Resources Data System for California including Mineral Deposit Types
Geochemical, mineralogical, and grain-size data for in-situ solid materials and suspended sediment at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Nevada County, California
Surface-Water Geochemistry of Mercury, Methylmercury, Nutrients, and other Constituents in Clear Lake, Lake County, California, July 2019
Field and Laboratory data of pipe scale forming in acid mine drainage pipelines at Iron Mountain and Leviathan Mines, California
Geochemistry of shallow sediment including mercury, methylmercury and other constituents in the Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California, 2010-16
Prediction of fish and sediment mercury in streams using landscape variables and historical mining
Comparison of mercury mass loading in streams to atmospheric deposition in watersheds of Western North America: Evidence for non-atmospheric mercury sources
Mercury and methylmercury in aquatic sediment across western North America
A synthesis of terrestrial mercury in the western United States: Spatial distribution defined by land cover and plant productivity
Filamentous hydrous ferric oxide biosignatures in a pipeline carrying acid mine drainage at Iron Mountain Mine, California
Quantifying the eroded volume of mercury-contaminated sediment using terrestrial laser scanning at Stocking Flat, Deer Creek, Nevada County, California, 2010–13
Mercury in western North America: A synthesis of environmental contamination, fluxes, bioaccumulation, and risk to fish and wildlife
A millennial-scale record of Pb and Hg contamination in peatlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, USA
An overview of environmental impacts and reclamation efforts at the Iron Mountain mine, Shasta County, California
From extreme pH to extreme temperature: An issue in honor of the geochemical contributions of Kirk Nordstrom, USGS hydrogeochemist
Preserved filamentous microbial biosignatures in the Brick Flat gossan, Iron Mountain, California
Anticipating environmental and environmental-health implications of extreme storms: ARkStorm scenario
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Mercury
Mercury is a rare, dense metal, slightly more common than gold in the earth's crust. Mercury occurs in several different forms, the most important of which is methylmercury. Methylmercury is the form most readily incorporated into biological tissues and most toxic to humans. Methylmercury accumulates and biomagnifies in the food chain, reaching highest concentrations in predatory fish such as bass...Mercury Methylation and Bioaccumulation in the Bear River Watershed
Extensive mercury use during historical gold processing has resulted in widespread mercury contamination and bioaccumulation of methylmercury in watersheds in the northwestern Sierra Nevada (Slotton and others 1997; Alpers and Hunerlach, 2000). A recent USGS report (May and others, 2000) documented the presence of elevated mercury in fish tissues in five reservoirs in the Bear River, Deer Creek...Monitoring Mercury and Methylmercury in Water, Sediment and Biota in Combie Reservoir Before and After Dredging and Mercury Removal
Dredging to maintain water storage capacity by the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) occurred at Lake Combie reservoir, one of several reservoirs along the Bear River, California over the past 40 years on an as-needed basis to maintain water storage capacity. Maintenance dredging operations were halted by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (CVRWQCB) in 2002 because of elevated...Lower American River Mercury
Dredging operations for gold along the American River began in the 1860s and continued through the early part of the 20th century, ending about 1962. More than one billion cubic yards of gravel were dredged, making the American River dredge field the second largest in California.Wildfire Effect on Mercury Levels in Putah and Cache Creek Watersheds
A serious consequence of wildfires is the erosion which occurs during storm events in areas where vegetation has been burned away. In cases where such land is near a creek or stream, mercury (Hg) and other contaminants from the eroding soil can make their way into the waterways, impacting the health of fish and wildlife, and the quality of the water supply for local communities (see: USGS Fact...Analysis of Factors Causing Mercury Impairment in Water Bodies of the Sierra Nevada, California
The SWRCB has requested assistance from the USGS in analyzing the factors that control Hg concentrations in fish tissue in the Sierra Nevada. Specifically, the SWRCB wants to know whether Hg and (or) MeHg in bed sediment and (or) suspended sediment could be potentially useful in the future as a 303(d) listing criteria. The SWRCB has requested that the USGS perform an analysis of existing data for...Mercury cycling, bioaccumulation, and risk across western North America: a landscape scale synthesis linking long-term datasets
Mercury (Hg) is a serious environmental problem that is impacting ecological and human health on a global scale. However, local and regional processes are largely responsible for producing methylmercury, which drives ecological risk. This is particularly true in western North America where the combination of diverse landscapes, habitat types, climates, and Hg sources may disproportionally impact tIron Mountain: An Extraordinary and Extreme Environment
At its peak production, Iron Mountain ranked as the tenth largest copper production site in the world, sixth in the U.S. and first in California. During its operation, from 1879 - 1963, ten different mines throughout the site's 4,400 acres were the source of not just copper, but also silver, iron, gold, zinc and pyrite (iron sulfide). A century of active mining at Iron Mountain took an... - Data
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Shallow Sediment Geochemistry in a Mercury-Contaminated Multi-Habitat Floodplain: Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California (version 2.0, August 2021)
The Cache Creek Settling Basin (CCSB) is a 13.3 km2 leveed basin located at the terminal drainage of the Cache Creek watershed, immediately NE of the town of Woodland (Yolo County), California and approximately 18 km NW of Sacramento, California. The basin was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (completed in 1937 and modified in 1993) for the purpose of trapping suspended sediment traUpdate of the Mineral Resources Data System for California including Mineral Deposit Types
There are more than 42,000 entries in the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) for the State of California. Previously, the field for deposit type was sparsely populated, which made it difficult to evaluate mine sites needing environmental remediation. This has been rectified by populating the deposit type field using 100 deposit types cited in previous USGS publications, and 137 provisionalGeochemical, mineralogical, and grain-size data for in-situ solid materials and suspended sediment at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Nevada County, California
This dataset includes data for in-situ solid materials and suspended sediments from surface-water samples, as well as surface-water chemistry from samples collected during storm events at Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park, Nevada County, California. In-situ solid samples were collected during 2015 along six vertical transects along the cliff walls of the mine pit. Surface-water samples were colSurface-Water Geochemistry of Mercury, Methylmercury, Nutrients, and other Constituents in Clear Lake, Lake County, California, July 2019
Clear Lake is a 180 km2 freshwater lake located in the California Coast Range, approximately 120 km northwest of Sacramento. The lake supports a wide variety of fish and bird species and is a very popular sport-fishing destination. However, fish consumption advisories associated with mercury (Hg) contamination exist for several popular recreational species. The lake is comprised of three main regiField and Laboratory data of pipe scale forming in acid mine drainage pipelines at Iron Mountain and Leviathan Mines, California
Pipelines carrying acid mine drainage at Iron Mountain and Leviathan Mines (CA, USA) develop pipe scale, a precipitate that forms inside the pipelines. The U.S. Geological Survey is studying the composition of the pipe scale and the acid mine drainage water flowing through the pipeline through field samples and laboratory experimentation. This data release provides the data from the studies of theGeochemistry of shallow sediment including mercury, methylmercury and other constituents in the Cache Creek Settling Basin, Yolo County, California, 2010-16
The Cache Creek Settling Basin (CCSB) is a 13.3 km2 leveed basin located at the terminal drainage of the Cache Creek watershed, immediately NE of the town of Woodland (Yolo County), California and approximately 18 km NW of Sacramento, California. The basin was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (completed in 1937 and modified in 1993) for the purpose of trapping suspended sediment tra - Multimedia
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Prediction of fish and sediment mercury in streams using landscape variables and historical mining
Widespread mercury (Hg) contamination of aquatic systems in the Sierra Nevada of California, U.S., is associated with historical use to enhance gold (Au) recovery by amalgamation. In areas affected by historical Au mining operations, including the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and downstream areas in northern California, such as San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River–San Joaquin River DelAuthorsCharles N. Alpers, Julie L. Yee, Joshua T. Ackerman, James L. Orlando, Darrell G. Slotton, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasqualeComparison of mercury mass loading in streams to atmospheric deposition in watersheds of Western North America: Evidence for non-atmospheric mercury sources
Annual stream loads of mercury (Hg) and inputs of wet and dry atmospheric Hg deposition to the landscape were investigated in watersheds of the Western United States and the Canadian-Alaskan Arctic. Mercury concentration and discharge data from flow gauging stations were used to compute annual mass loads with regression models. Measured wet and modeled dry deposition were compared to annual streamAuthorsJoseph L. Domagalski, Michael S. Majewski, Charles N. Alpers, Chris S. Eckley, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Liam N. Schenk, Susan WherryMercury and methylmercury in aquatic sediment across western North America
Large-scale assessments are valuable in identifying primary factors controlling total mercury (THg) and monomethyl mercury (MeHg) concentrations, and distribution in aquatic ecosystems. Bed sediment THg and MeHg concentrations were compiled for > 16,000 samples collected from aquatic habitats throughout the West between 1965 and 2013. The influence of aquatic feature type (canals, estuaries, lakesAuthorsJacob Fleck, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Collin A. Eagles-Smith, Joshua T. Ackerman, Michelle A. Lutz, Michael T. Tate, Charles N. Alpers, Britt D. Hall, David P. Krabbenhoft, Chris S. EckleyByEcosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Environmental Health Program, Toxic Substances Hydrology, California Water Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, Mercury Research LaboratoryA synthesis of terrestrial mercury in the western United States: Spatial distribution defined by land cover and plant productivity
A synthesis of published vegetation mercury (Hg) data across 11 contiguous states in the western United States showed that aboveground biomass concentrations followed the order: leaves (26 μg kg− 1) ~ branches (26 μg kg− 1) > bark (16 μg kg− 1) > bole wood (1 μg kg− 1). No spatial trends of Hg in aboveground biomass distribution were detected, which likely is due to very sparse data coverage and dAuthorsDaniel Obrist, Christopher Pearson, Jackson Webster, Tyler J. Kane, Che-Jen Lin, George R. Aiken, Charles N. AlpersFilamentous hydrous ferric oxide biosignatures in a pipeline carrying acid mine drainage at Iron Mountain Mine, California
A pipeline carrying acidic mine effluent at Iron Mountain, CA, developed Fe(III)-rich precipitate caused by oxidation of Fe(II)aq. The native microbial community in the pipe included filamentous microbes. The pipe scale consisted of microbial filaments, and schwertmannite (ferric oxyhydroxysulfate, FOHS) mineral spheres and filaments. FOHS filaments contained central lumina with diameters similarAuthorsAmy J. Williams, Charles N. Alpers, Dawn Y. Sumner, Kate M. CampbellQuantifying the eroded volume of mercury-contaminated sediment using terrestrial laser scanning at Stocking Flat, Deer Creek, Nevada County, California, 2010–13
High-resolution ground-based light detection and ranging (lidar), also known as terrestrial laser scanning, was used to quantify the volume of mercury-contaminated sediment eroded from a stream cutbank at Stocking Flat along Deer Creek in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 3 kilometers west of Nevada City, California. Terrestrial laser scanning was used to collect sub-centimeter, three-dimensionalAuthorsJames F. Howle, Charles N. Alpers, Gerald W. Bawden, Sandra BondMercury in western North America: A synthesis of environmental contamination, fluxes, bioaccumulation, and risk to fish and wildlife
Western North America is a region defined by extreme gradients in geomorphology and climate, which support a diverse array of ecological communities and natural resources. The region also has extreme gradients in mercury (Hg) contamination due to a broad distribution of inorganic Hg sources. These diverse Hg sources and a varied landscape create a unique and complex mosaic of ecological risk fromAuthorsCollin A. Eagles-Smith, James G. Wiener, Chris S. Eckley, James J. Willacker, David C. Evers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Daniel Obrist, Jacob Fleck, George R. Aiken, Jesse M. Lepak, Allyson K. Jackson, Jackson Webster, A. Robin Stewart, Jay Davis, Charles N. Alpers, Joshua T. AckermanA millennial-scale record of Pb and Hg contamination in peatlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California, USA
In this paper, we provide the first record of millennial patterns of Pb and Hg concentrations on the west coast of the United States. Peat cores were collected from two micro-tidal marshes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California. Core samples were analyzed for Pb, Hg, and Ti concentrations and dated using radiocarbon, 210Pb, and 137Cs. Pre-anthropogenic concentrations of Pb and Hg in peaAuthorsJudith Z. Drexler, Charles N. Alpers, Leonid A. Neymark, James B. Paces, Howard E. Taylor, Christopher C. FullerAn overview of environmental impacts and reclamation efforts at the Iron Mountain mine, Shasta County, California
No abstract availableAuthorsJames A Jacobs, Stephen M. Testa, Charles N. Alpers, D. Kirk NordstromFrom extreme pH to extreme temperature: An issue in honor of the geochemical contributions of Kirk Nordstrom, USGS hydrogeochemist
This special issue of Applied Geochemistry honors Dr. D. Kirk Nordstrom, and his influential career spent primarily at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This issue does not herald his retirement or other significant career milestone, but serves as a recognition of the impact his work has had on the field of geochemistry in general. This special issue grew from a symposium in Kirk’s honor (affectiAuthorsKate M. Campbell, Philip L. Verplanck, R. Blaine McCleskey, Charles N. AlpersPreserved filamentous microbial biosignatures in the Brick Flat gossan, Iron Mountain, California
A variety of actively precipitating mineral environments preserve morphological evidence of microbial biosignatures. One such environment with preserved microbial biosignatures is the oxidized portion of a massive sulfide deposit, or gossan, such as that at Iron Mountain, California. This gossan may serve as a mineralogical analogue to some ancient martian environments due to the presence of oxidiAuthorsAmy J. Williams, Dawn Y. Sumner, Charles N. Alpers, Suniti Karunatillake, Beda A HofmannAnticipating environmental and environmental-health implications of extreme storms: ARkStorm scenario
The ARkStorm Scenario predicts that a prolonged winter storm event across California would cause extreme precipitation, flooding, winds, physical damages, and economic impacts. This study uses a literature review and geographic information system-based analysis of national and state databases to infer how and where ARkStorm could cause environmental damages, release contamination from diverse natuAuthorsGeoffrey S. Plumlee, Charles N. Alpers, Suzette A. Morman, Carma A. San JuanByNatural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Science Application for Risk Reduction, California Water Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Big Sur Landslides, Reducing Risk, San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary - News