Tanya J Gallegos, Ph.D.
Tanya Gallegos is an Associate Program Coordinator, Mineral Resources Program (MRP) in Reston, VA.
Dr. Tanya Gallegos is a research engineer at the U.S. Geological survey and a registered professional engineer in New Mexico. She joined USGS in 2007 as a Mendenhall Post-Doctoral fellow to study the redox chemistry of iron sulfide, arsenic and uranium in uranium mine waters. Her current research encompasses field and lab studies to understand the products, byproducts and wastes from the energy resource life cycles – unconventional oil and shale gas recovery via hydraulic fracturing and uranium recovery via mining and milling. Research topics include: geochemical and isotopic characterization of mine influenced water, oilfield brine, ore, and solid surfaces (gamma spectrometry, SEM, XRD, ICP-OES, ICP-MS EXAFS/XAS); geochemical modeling; integrated assessments for energy resource development; assessing water use in hydraulic fracturing and uranium mining; groundwater restoration at ISR uranium mines; dilute inorganic chemistry; groundwater remediation of trace elements; and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). She is currently managing the Naturally Occurring Radionuclide Lab and the Advancements in Geochemistry and Geomicrobiology of Energy Resources project. She leads three tasks: Developing sensing Methods to Identify Abandoned Mines, Waste as a Resource in Abandoned Mines, and NORM Products in Energy Resource Life Cycles. Tanya also serves on the steering committees for the Federal Remediation Technology Roundtable and the Federal Mining Dialogue and has previously served on the New Mexico Uranium Mining Task Force. She is also an associate editor for Applied Geochemistry. From 2010-2012, she served on the USGS Strategic Science Planning Team for the Energy and Minerals Resource Mission Area.
Work Experience
Research and Applied Engineering Expertise
- Geochemical and isotopic interpretation of unconventional oil and gas produced waters
- Water use in oil and gas production using hydraulic fracturing in the United States
- Water use and groundwater contamination following uranium mining
- Spectroscopic study of nanoscale iron sulfide and uranium reaction products
- Gamma ray spectroscopy for evaluation of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM)
- Development of geoenvironmental assessment methodology for uranium mining
- Rock-water-oil interactions during hydraulic fracturing of tight oil plays
- Laboratory studies to understand the redox behavior of iron sulfides, uranium and arsenic
- Geochemical controls on uranium following in-situ uranium recovery (ISR)
- Geochemical and isotopic tracers of elements from uranium mining and hydraulic fracturing
- Characteristics of uranium deposits amenable to situ recovery of uranium in WY and TX
- Civil engineering design of water, wastewater, and drainage systems.
Education and Certifications
University of Michigan, Environmental Engineering/Water Resources, Ph.D.
University of New Mexico, Civil & Environmental Engineering, M.S.
University of New Mexico, Civil Engineering, B.S.
Research Engineering Experience
Research Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey
Post-doctoral Mendenhall Fellow, Research Chemist, U.S. Geological Survey
Teaching, Academia and Scholastic Experience
STEM-Engineering Curriculum Design, New Mexico State University at Grants Community College
Uranium Geochemistry Short Course lecturer; Geochemical Society of America
Public Education: Uranium in the Environment, U.S. Geological Survey science modules for public dissemination
Affiliations and Memberships*
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
Geological Society of America (GSA)
American Geophysical Union
Geochemical Society
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 30
Geochemistry and hydrology of perched groundwater springs: assessing elevated uranium concentrations at Pigeon Spring relative to nearby Pigeon Mine, Arizona (USA)
The processes that affect water chemistry as the water flows from recharge areas through breccia-pipe uranium deposits in the Grand Canyon region of the southwestern United States are not well understood. Pigeon Spring had elevated uranium in 1982 (44 μg/L), compared to other perched springs (2.7–18 μg/L), prior to mining operations at the nearby Pigeon Mine. Perched groundwater springs in an area
Authors
Kimberly R. Beisner, Nicholas V. Paretti, Fred D. Tillman, David L. Naftz, Donald J. Bills, Katherine Walton-Day, Tanya J. Gallegos
Persistent U(IV) and U(VI) following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining of a sandstone uranium deposit, Wyoming, USA
Drill-core samples from a sandstone-hosted uranium (U) deposit in Wyoming were characterized to determine the abundance and distribution of uranium following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining with oxygen- and carbon dioxide-enriched water. Concentrations of uranium, collected from ten depth intervals, ranged from 5 to 1920 ppm. A composite sample contained 750 ppm uranium with an average oxidation st
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Kate M. Campbell, Robert A. Zielinski, P.W. Reimus, J.T. Clay, N. Janot, J. J. Bargar, William Benzel
Hydraulic fracturing water use variability in the United States and potential environmental implications
Until now, up-to-date, comprehensive, spatial, national-scale data on hydraulic fracturing water volumes have been lacking. Water volumes used (injected) to hydraulically fracture over 263,859 oil and gas wells drilled between 2000 and 2014 were compiled and used to create the first U.S. map of hydraulic fracturing water use. Although median annual volumes of 15,275 m3 and 19,425 m3 of water per w
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Biogeochemical aspects of uranium mineralization, mining, milling, and remediation
Natural uranium (U) occurs as a mixture of three radioactive isotopes: 238U, 235U, and 234U. Only 235U is fissionable and makes up about 0.7% of natural U, while 238U is overwhelmingly the most abundant at greater than 99% of the total mass of U. Prior to the 1940s, U was predominantly used as a coloring agent, and U-bearing ores were mined mainly for their radium (Ra) and/or vanadium (V) content;
Authors
Kate M. Campbell, Tanya J. Gallegos, Edward R. Landa
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Global trends toward developing new energy resources from lower grade, larger tonnage deposits that are not generally accessible using “conventional” extraction methods involve variations of subsurface in situ extraction techniques including in situ oil shale retorting, hydraulic fracturing of petroleum reservoirs, and in situ recovery of uranium. Although these methods are economically feasible a
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Carleton R. Bern, Justin E. Birdwell, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Assessment of surface water chloride and conductivity trends in areas of unconventional oil and gas development — Why existing national data sets cannot tell us what we would like to know
Heightened concern regarding the potential effects of unconventional oil and gas development on regional water quality has emerged, but the few studies on this topic are limited in geographic scope. Here we evaluate the potential utility of national and publicly available water-quality data sets for addressing questions regarding unconventional oil and gas development. We used existing U.S. Geolog
Authors
Zachary H. Bowen, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Brian S. Cade, Tanya J. Gallegos, Aïda M. Farag, David N. Mott, Christopher J. Potter, Peter J. Cinotto, Melanie L. Clark, William M. Kappel, Timothy M. Kresse, Cynthia P. Melcher, Suzanne S. Paschke, David D. Susong, Brian A. Varela
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center
Data regarding hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010
Comprehensive, published, and publicly available data regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States are scarce. The objective of this data series is to publish data related to hydraulic fracturing in the public domain. The spreadsheets released with this data series contain derivative datasets aggregated temporally and spatially from the commercial and
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela
Trends in hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010: data analysis and comparison to the literature
Hydraulic fracturing is presently the primary stimulation technique for oil and gas production in low-permeability, unconventional reservoirs. Comprehensive, published, and publicly available information regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States is scarce. This national spatial and temporal analysis of data on nearly 1 million hydraulically fracture
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela
Energy and Minerals Science at the U.S. Geological Survey
The economy, national security, and standard of living of the United States depend on adequate and reliable supplies of energy and mineral resources. Based on population and consumption trends, the Nation’s and World’s use of energy and minerals is expected to grow, driving the demand for scientific understanding of resource formation, location, and availability. The importance of environmental st
Authors
Richard C. Ferrero, Jonathan J. Kolak, Donald J. Bills, Zachary H. Bowen, Daniel J. Cordier, Tanya J. Gallegos, James R. Hein, Karen D. Kelley, Philip H. Nelson, Vito F. Nuccio, Jeanine M. Schmidt, Robert R. Seal
Uranium(VI) interactions with mackinawite in the presence and absence of bicarbonate and oxygen
Mackinawite, Fe(II)S, samples loaded with uranium (10-5, 10-4, and 10-3 mol U/g FeS) at pH 5, 7, and 9, were characterized using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to determine the effects of pH, bicarbonate, and oxidation on uptake. Under anoxic conditions, a 5 g/L suspension of mackinawite lowered 5 × 10-5 M uranium(VI) to below 30 ppb (1.26 × 10-7 M) U. Between 82 and 88% of th
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Christopher C. Fuller, Samuel M. Webb, William J. Betterton
A framework for quantitative assessment of impacts related to energy and mineral resource development
Natural resource planning at all scales demands methods for assessing the impacts of resource development and use, and in particular it requires standardized methods that yield robust and unbiased results. Building from existing probabilistic methods for assessing the volumes of energy and mineral resources, we provide an algorithm for consistent, reproducible, quantitative assessment of resource
Authors
Seth S. Haines, James Diffendorfer, Laurie S. Balistrieri, Byron R. Berger, Troy A. Cook, Donald L. Gautier, Tanya J. Gallegos, Margot Gerritsen, Elisabeth Graffy, Sarah Hawkins, Kathleen Johnson, Jordan Macknick, Peter McMahon, Tim Modde, Brenda Pierce, John H. Schuenemeyer, Darius J. Semmens, Benjamin Simon, Jason Taylor, Katherine Walton-Day
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 30
Geochemistry and hydrology of perched groundwater springs: assessing elevated uranium concentrations at Pigeon Spring relative to nearby Pigeon Mine, Arizona (USA)
The processes that affect water chemistry as the water flows from recharge areas through breccia-pipe uranium deposits in the Grand Canyon region of the southwestern United States are not well understood. Pigeon Spring had elevated uranium in 1982 (44 μg/L), compared to other perched springs (2.7–18 μg/L), prior to mining operations at the nearby Pigeon Mine. Perched groundwater springs in an area
Authors
Kimberly R. Beisner, Nicholas V. Paretti, Fred D. Tillman, David L. Naftz, Donald J. Bills, Katherine Walton-Day, Tanya J. Gallegos
Persistent U(IV) and U(VI) following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining of a sandstone uranium deposit, Wyoming, USA
Drill-core samples from a sandstone-hosted uranium (U) deposit in Wyoming were characterized to determine the abundance and distribution of uranium following in-situ recovery (ISR) mining with oxygen- and carbon dioxide-enriched water. Concentrations of uranium, collected from ten depth intervals, ranged from 5 to 1920 ppm. A composite sample contained 750 ppm uranium with an average oxidation st
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Kate M. Campbell, Robert A. Zielinski, P.W. Reimus, J.T. Clay, N. Janot, J. J. Bargar, William Benzel
Hydraulic fracturing water use variability in the United States and potential environmental implications
Until now, up-to-date, comprehensive, spatial, national-scale data on hydraulic fracturing water volumes have been lacking. Water volumes used (injected) to hydraulically fracture over 263,859 oil and gas wells drilled between 2000 and 2014 were compiled and used to create the first U.S. map of hydraulic fracturing water use. Although median annual volumes of 15,275 m3 and 19,425 m3 of water per w
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Biogeochemical aspects of uranium mineralization, mining, milling, and remediation
Natural uranium (U) occurs as a mixture of three radioactive isotopes: 238U, 235U, and 234U. Only 235U is fissionable and makes up about 0.7% of natural U, while 238U is overwhelmingly the most abundant at greater than 99% of the total mass of U. Prior to the 1940s, U was predominantly used as a coloring agent, and U-bearing ores were mined mainly for their radium (Ra) and/or vanadium (V) content;
Authors
Kate M. Campbell, Tanya J. Gallegos, Edward R. Landa
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Global trends toward developing new energy resources from lower grade, larger tonnage deposits that are not generally accessible using “conventional” extraction methods involve variations of subsurface in situ extraction techniques including in situ oil shale retorting, hydraulic fracturing of petroleum reservoirs, and in situ recovery of uranium. Although these methods are economically feasible a
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Carleton R. Bern, Justin E. Birdwell, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. Engle
Assessment of surface water chloride and conductivity trends in areas of unconventional oil and gas development — Why existing national data sets cannot tell us what we would like to know
Heightened concern regarding the potential effects of unconventional oil and gas development on regional water quality has emerged, but the few studies on this topic are limited in geographic scope. Here we evaluate the potential utility of national and publicly available water-quality data sets for addressing questions regarding unconventional oil and gas development. We used existing U.S. Geolog
Authors
Zachary H. Bowen, Gretchen P. Oelsner, Brian S. Cade, Tanya J. Gallegos, Aïda M. Farag, David N. Mott, Christopher J. Potter, Peter J. Cinotto, Melanie L. Clark, William M. Kappel, Timothy M. Kresse, Cynthia P. Melcher, Suzanne S. Paschke, David D. Susong, Brian A. Varela
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center, Colorado Water Science Center, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Water Science Center, Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center, Utah Water Science Center, Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center
Data regarding hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010
Comprehensive, published, and publicly available data regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States are scarce. The objective of this data series is to publish data related to hydraulic fracturing in the public domain. The spreadsheets released with this data series contain derivative datasets aggregated temporally and spatially from the commercial and
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela
Trends in hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from 1947 through 2010: data analysis and comparison to the literature
Hydraulic fracturing is presently the primary stimulation technique for oil and gas production in low-permeability, unconventional reservoirs. Comprehensive, published, and publicly available information regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States is scarce. This national spatial and temporal analysis of data on nearly 1 million hydraulically fracture
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Brian A. Varela
Energy and Minerals Science at the U.S. Geological Survey
The economy, national security, and standard of living of the United States depend on adequate and reliable supplies of energy and mineral resources. Based on population and consumption trends, the Nation’s and World’s use of energy and minerals is expected to grow, driving the demand for scientific understanding of resource formation, location, and availability. The importance of environmental st
Authors
Richard C. Ferrero, Jonathan J. Kolak, Donald J. Bills, Zachary H. Bowen, Daniel J. Cordier, Tanya J. Gallegos, James R. Hein, Karen D. Kelley, Philip H. Nelson, Vito F. Nuccio, Jeanine M. Schmidt, Robert R. Seal
Uranium(VI) interactions with mackinawite in the presence and absence of bicarbonate and oxygen
Mackinawite, Fe(II)S, samples loaded with uranium (10-5, 10-4, and 10-3 mol U/g FeS) at pH 5, 7, and 9, were characterized using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to determine the effects of pH, bicarbonate, and oxidation on uptake. Under anoxic conditions, a 5 g/L suspension of mackinawite lowered 5 × 10-5 M uranium(VI) to below 30 ppb (1.26 × 10-7 M) U. Between 82 and 88% of th
Authors
Tanya J. Gallegos, Christopher C. Fuller, Samuel M. Webb, William J. Betterton
A framework for quantitative assessment of impacts related to energy and mineral resource development
Natural resource planning at all scales demands methods for assessing the impacts of resource development and use, and in particular it requires standardized methods that yield robust and unbiased results. Building from existing probabilistic methods for assessing the volumes of energy and mineral resources, we provide an algorithm for consistent, reproducible, quantitative assessment of resource
Authors
Seth S. Haines, James Diffendorfer, Laurie S. Balistrieri, Byron R. Berger, Troy A. Cook, Donald L. Gautier, Tanya J. Gallegos, Margot Gerritsen, Elisabeth Graffy, Sarah Hawkins, Kathleen Johnson, Jordan Macknick, Peter McMahon, Tim Modde, Brenda Pierce, John H. Schuenemeyer, Darius J. Semmens, Benjamin Simon, Jason Taylor, Katherine Walton-Day
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government