Rob Runkel
Biography
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Summa Cum Laude, 1985, Computer Science and Environmental Studies, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Master of Environmental Management, 1987, Water Resources, Duke University: Monte Carlo Analysis of the Surface Water Component for Land Disposal Restriction Determinations
Doctor of Philosophy, 1993, Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado: Development and Application of an Equilibrium-based Simulation Model for Reactive Solute Transport in Small Streams
EMPLOYMENT
1987-1989 Hydrologist, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota
1989-1992 Research Engineer, University of Colorado, Center for Advanced Decision Support in Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES), Boulder, Colorado
1992-Present Research Hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado
MISC.
Associate Editor, Water Resources Research, 2006–2014
Member, American Geophysical Union
Member, Society for Freshwater Science
Member, European Geosciences Union
Science and Products
Water-quality data for stream and hyporheic zone samples altered by injection of sodium bromide tracer during a synoptic-sampling study, Leavenworth Creek, Clear Creek County, Colorado, 2012
Leavenworth Creek, a tributary of South Clear Creek and Clear Creek near Georgetown, Colorado contains copper, lead, and zinc concentrations that are near to or exceed aquatic life standards. The creek drains the Argentine mining district where mining was active primarily in the early 1900s. In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a metal-loading study us
Water-quality and discharge data from draining mine tunnels near Silverton, Colorado 1988-2015
The American Tunnel, the Black Hawk mine, the Gold King mine, the Mogul mine, and the Red and Bonita mine are located in the Cement Creek watershed, tributary to the upper Animas River near Silverton, Colorado. All five sites have tunnels that drain groundwater from abandoned underground mine workings to the surface. This draining water has elevated concentrations of metals and degrad
Synoptic sampling data from Illinois Gulch and Iron Springs near Breckenridge, Colorado, August 2016 and September 2017
Two synoptic sampling campaigns were conducted near Breckenridge, Colorado, to quantify metal loading to Illinois Gulch, a tributary of the Blue River. The first campaign, conducted in August 2016, was designed to determine the degree to which Illinois Gulch loses water to the underlying mine workings, and to determine the effect of these losses on observed metal loads. The second cam
Minnesota Mine Shaft Tracer Data, Lion Creek Watershed near Empire, Colorado, July-November, 2017
On July 26, 2017, a solution containing approximately 200 kilograms of dissolved sodium bromide was added to the the flooded underground shaft of the Minnesota Mine, near Empire, Colorado. This addition was conducted as part of an effort to determine the degree to which the mine shaft is hydrologically connected to a series of downgradient seeps and springs.
Water-quality change following remediation using structural bulkheads in abandoned draining mines, upper Arkansas River and upper Animas River, Colorado USA
Water-quality effects after remediating abandoned draining mine tunnels using structural bulkheads were examined in two study areas in Colorado, USA. A bulkhead was installed in the Dinero mine tunnel in 2009 to improve water quality in Lake Fork Creek, a tributary to the upper Arkansas River. Although bulkhead installation improved pH,...
Walton-Day, Katie; Mast, Alisa; Runkel, Robert L. Transport and speciation of uranium in groundwater-surface water systems impacted by legacy milling operations
Growing worldwide concern over uranium contamination of groundwater resources has placed an emphasis on understanding uranium transport dynamics and potential toxicity in groundwater-surface water systems. In this study, we utilized novel in-situ sampling methods to establish the location and magnitude of contaminated groundwater entry into a...
Byrne, Patrick; Fuller, Christopher C.; Naftz, David L.; Runkel, Robert L.; Lehto, Niklas J; Dam, William L Critical shifts in trace metal transport and remediation performance under future low river flows
Exceptionally low river flows are predicted to become more frequent and more severe across many global regions as a consequence of climate change. Investigations of trace metal transport dynamics across streamflows reveal stark changes in water chemistry, metal transformation processes, and remediation effectiveness under exceptionally low-flow...
Byrne, Patrick; Onnis, Patrizia; Runkel, Robert L.; Frau, Ilaria; Lynch, Sarah F.L.; Edwards, Paul Exploring the potential of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to measure the extent of chronic disturbance in peatlands: Examples from acid mine drainage and peat fire
Peatlands are accumulations of partially decayed organic soil that cover approximately 3% of Earth’s surface and have been shown to serve essential environmental and ecological functions such as sequestering carbon, purifying water, and providing habitat for organisms. However, peatlands are threatened by pressures from agriculture, urban...
Terry, Neil; Runkel, Robert L.; Werkema, Dale D.; Rutila, Elizabeth; Comas, Xavier; Warren, Matthew; Kristiyono, Agus; Murdiyarso, Daniel Cinnamon gulch revisited: Another look at separating natural and mining-impacted contributions to instream metal load
Baseline, premining data for streams draining abandoned mine lands is virtually non existent, and indirect methods for estimating premining conditions are needed to establish realistic, cost effective cleanup goals. One such indirect method is the proximal analog approach, in which premining conditions are estimated using data from nearby...
Runkel, Robert L.; Verplanck, Philip L.; Kimball, Briant; Walton-Day, Katie Exploration of diffuse and discrete sources of acid mine drainage to a headwater mountain stream in Colorado, USA
We investigated the impact of acid mine drainage (AMD) contamination from the Minnesota Mine, an inactive gold and silver mine, on Lion Creek, a headwater mountain stream near Empire, Colorado. The objective was to map the sources of AMD contamination, including discrete sources visible at the surface and diffuse inputs that were not readily...
Johnston, Allison; Runkel, Robert L.; Navarre-Sitchler, Alexis; Singha, Kamini 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 A software tool to assess uncertainty in transient-storage model parameters using Monte Carlo simulations
Researchers and practitioners alike often need to understand and characterize how water and solutes move through a stream in terms of the relative importance of in-stream and near-stream storage and transport processes. In-channel and subsurface storage processes are highly variable in space and time and difficult to measure. Storage estimates are...
Ward, Adam S.; Kelleher, Christa A.; Mason, Seth J. K.; Wagener, Thorsten; McIntyre, Neil; McGlynn, Brian L.; Runkel, Robert L.; Payn, Robert A. The precipitation of indium at elevated pH in a stream influenced by acid mine drainage
Indium is an increasingly important metal in semiconductors and electronics and has uses in important energy technologies such as photovoltaic cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). One significant flux of indium to the environment is from lead, zinc, copper, and tin mining and smelting, but little is known about its aqueous behavior after it is...
White, Sarah Jane O.; Hussain, Fatima A.; Hemond, Harold F.; Sacco, Sarah A.; Shine, James P.; Runkel, Robert L.; Walton-Day, Katherine; Kimball, Briant A. Strontium isotopic systematics of mineralized and background water samples, Montezuma Mining District, Colorado
Surface and groundwater samples within the Montezuma mining district were sampled to evaluate the use of strontium isotopic compositions as signatures of different water types. Waters draining Precambrian metamorphic units had distinctly higher 87Sr/ 86Sr values (0.72893 to 0.73833) than waters draining Tertiaryage plutonic rocks (0.71064 and 0....
Verplanck, Philip L.; Runkel, Robert L. Effects of flow regime on metal concentrations and the attainment of water quality standards in a remediated stream reach, Butte, Montana
Low-flow synoptic sampling campaigns are often used as the primary tool to characterize watersheds affected by mining. Although such campaigns are an invaluable part of site characterization, investigations which focus solely on low-flow conditions may yield misleading results. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate this point and elucidate...
Runkel, Robert L.; Kimball, Briant A.; Nimick, David A.; Walton-Day, Katherine Non-invasive flow path characterization in a mining-impacted wetland
Time-lapse electrical resistivity (ER) was used to capture the dilution of a seasonal pulse of acid mine drainage (AMD) contamination in the subsurface of a wetland downgradient of the abandoned Pennsylvania mine workings in central Colorado. Data were collected monthly from mid-July to late October of 2013, with an additional dataset collected in...
Bethune, James; Randell, Jackie; Runkel, Robert L.; Singha, Kamini
One-Dimensional Transport with Equilibrium Chemistry (OTEQ): A Reactive Transport Model for Streams and Rivers
OTEQ is a mathematical simulation model used to characterize the fate and transport of waterborne solutes in streams and rivers. The model is formed by coupling a solute transport model with a chemical equilibrium submodel. The solute transport model is based on OTIS, a model that considers the physical processes of advection...
One-Dimensional Transport with Inflow and Storage (OTIS): A Solute Transport Model for Streams and Rivers
OTIS is a mathematical simulation model used to characterize the fate and transport of water-borne solutes in streams and rivers.
The governing equation underlying the model is the advection-dispersion equation with additional terms to account for transient storage, lateral inflow, first-order decay, and sorption.