Since 1986, the USGS Hard-Rock Mining Toxic-Substances Hydrology Project has focused on metal transport in streams affected by mining.
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.
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.
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.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Upper 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.
Sources 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 assessing...
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Upper 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.
Sources 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 assessing...