Sampling in the Animas River, Colorado
The Minerals Integrated Science Team focuses on contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from mineral resource activities including, transportation, storage, extraction and waste management. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified the science produced by this team can inform how to economically and effectively minimize exposures by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants.
Mineral mining is an essential part of a healthy economy. U.S. mines produced an estimated $75.2 billion in nonfuel minerals during 2017 including industrial minerals, aggregates, and metals. The mining industry and government regulators work together to prevent the release of contaminants such as metals into the environment from mining activities.
The USGS Minerals Integrated Science Team (IST), a part of the Environmental Health Program, in the Ecosystems Mission Area focuses on the lifecycle of metals and radionuclides in the environment to inform best management practices for waste materials associated with mineral extraction including transportation, storage, recycling of materials, and other activities where there are perceived or actual hazards from contaminant exposures originating from mineral resource activities.
The team works to distinguish naturally sourced toxicants in the environment from those that may originate from mineral resource activities. They use this information to understand fish, wildlife, and human exposure and to determine If their are health risks upon exposure. If health risks are identified, this Team will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants. The team also directly addresses the 2012 DOI Record of Decision to understand actual versus perceived risks due to uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region. Much of this work is driven by concerns over potential mining impacts to the Grand Canyon, its natural resources, and Tribal members.
Research is accomplished at a range of scales, including laboratory-based studies, modeling, and targeted field studies in watersheds across the Nation to collectively deliver science on exposures and risks to wildlife, humans, ecosystems, and water resources. The team is unique in that it bring together geologists, hydrologists, biologists, chemists, microbiologists, ecologists, toxicologists, and geophysicists from across USGS to address this science.
The team provides science to support the utilization and protection of our Nation’s resources.
- Identify hydrologic, geochemical and biological processes that govern the source, transport, and fate of metals and radionuclides as determinants of ecosystem health
- Characterize the geochemical and biological processes governing the environmental fate, exposure, bioaccumulation, and effects of metals to reduce uncertainty and to inform risk assessment
- Characterize transport pathways of mining-related contaminants in abiotic and biotic media to improve understanding of exposure pathways and biological effects of uranium and co-occurring elements related to uranium mines in the Grand Canyon watershed.
- Develop methods and execute a geo-environmental assessment of developing undiscovered uranium deposits in the Texas Gulf coast uranium province
- Investigate multi-metal exposures, critical minerals, and multi-stressor effects on ecosystems influenced by mineral resource extraction and processing
The following are the data releases from this science team’s research activities.
Elements in elk tissues harvested in pre-uranium mining and non-mining areas, 2019
Biomass accrual and trace-element concentrations in water and periphytic algae at select locations in the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers, Montana, 2015
Brecchia pipe uranium mine bird survey data, Grand Canyon region, 2014-2015
Hydrologic reconnaissance to identify areas of emergent groundwater, Mineral Creek, near Silverton, Colorado, June 2020
Mineralogical analyses of drill core samples from the Canyon uranium-copper deposit, a solution-collapse breccia pipe, Grand Canyon area, Coconino County, Arizona, USA
Geochemical and mineralogical analyses of uranium ores from the Hack II and Pigeon deposits, solution-collapse breccia pipes, Grand Canyon region, Mohave and Coconino Counties, Arizona, USA
Vegetation cover and composition data in environments surrounding uranium mines in the Grand Canyon ecosystem, USA
Influence of dissolved organic carbon on the acute toxicity of copper and zinc to white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and the cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia)
Hydrologic, biogeochemical, and radon data collected within and adjacent to the Little Wind River near Riverton, Wyoming
Water-Quality, Bed-Sediment, and Biological Data (October 2016 through September 2017) and Statistical Summaries of Data for Streams in the Clark Fork Basin, Montana
Toxicity of aluminum to Ceriodaphnia dubia in natural waters as affected by hardness and dissolved organic matter
Acute and latent effects of zinc on two commonly tested species (Ceriodaphnia dubia and Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Below are publications associated with this science team.
A simple low-cost approach for transport parameter determination in mountain rivers
Effects of hydrologic variability and remedial actions on first flush and metal loading from streams draining the Silverton caldera, 1992–2014
Modeling the bioavailability of nickel and zinc to Ceriodaphnia dubia and Neocloeon triangulifer in toxicity tests with Natural Waters
Direct and delayed mortality of Ceriodaphnia dubia and rainbow trout following time-varying acute exposures to zinc
Co-transport of biogenic nano-hydroxyapatite and Pb(II) in saturated sand columns: Controlling factors and stochastic modeling
Water-quality change following remediation using structural bulkheads in abandoned draining mines, upper Arkansas River and upper Animas River, Colorado USA
An assessment of uranium in groundwater in the Grand Canyon region
Terrestrial ecological risk analysis via dietary exposure at uranium mine sites in the Grand Canyon watershed (Arizona, USA)
Assessing uranium and select trace elements associated with breccia pipe uranium deposits in the Colorado River and main tributaries in Grand Canyon, USA
Transport and speciation of uranium in groundwater-surface water systems impacted by legacy milling operations
Elemental and radionuclide exposures and uptakes by small rodents, invertebrates, and vegetation at active and post-production uranium mines in the Grand Canyon watershed
Conceptual framework and approach for conducting a geoenvironmental assessment of undiscovered uranium resources
The Minerals Integrated Science Team focuses on contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from mineral resource activities including, transportation, storage, extraction and waste management. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified the science produced by this team can inform how to economically and effectively minimize exposures by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants.
Mineral mining is an essential part of a healthy economy. U.S. mines produced an estimated $75.2 billion in nonfuel minerals during 2017 including industrial minerals, aggregates, and metals. The mining industry and government regulators work together to prevent the release of contaminants such as metals into the environment from mining activities.
The USGS Minerals Integrated Science Team (IST), a part of the Environmental Health Program, in the Ecosystems Mission Area focuses on the lifecycle of metals and radionuclides in the environment to inform best management practices for waste materials associated with mineral extraction including transportation, storage, recycling of materials, and other activities where there are perceived or actual hazards from contaminant exposures originating from mineral resource activities.
The team works to distinguish naturally sourced toxicants in the environment from those that may originate from mineral resource activities. They use this information to understand fish, wildlife, and human exposure and to determine If their are health risks upon exposure. If health risks are identified, this Team will inform how to economically and effectively minimize risk by providing scientific data and understandings about the environmental transport, fate, and exposure pathways of contaminants. The team also directly addresses the 2012 DOI Record of Decision to understand actual versus perceived risks due to uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region. Much of this work is driven by concerns over potential mining impacts to the Grand Canyon, its natural resources, and Tribal members.
Research is accomplished at a range of scales, including laboratory-based studies, modeling, and targeted field studies in watersheds across the Nation to collectively deliver science on exposures and risks to wildlife, humans, ecosystems, and water resources. The team is unique in that it bring together geologists, hydrologists, biologists, chemists, microbiologists, ecologists, toxicologists, and geophysicists from across USGS to address this science.
The team provides science to support the utilization and protection of our Nation’s resources.
- Identify hydrologic, geochemical and biological processes that govern the source, transport, and fate of metals and radionuclides as determinants of ecosystem health
- Characterize the geochemical and biological processes governing the environmental fate, exposure, bioaccumulation, and effects of metals to reduce uncertainty and to inform risk assessment
- Characterize transport pathways of mining-related contaminants in abiotic and biotic media to improve understanding of exposure pathways and biological effects of uranium and co-occurring elements related to uranium mines in the Grand Canyon watershed.
- Develop methods and execute a geo-environmental assessment of developing undiscovered uranium deposits in the Texas Gulf coast uranium province
- Investigate multi-metal exposures, critical minerals, and multi-stressor effects on ecosystems influenced by mineral resource extraction and processing
The following are the data releases from this science team’s research activities.
Elements in elk tissues harvested in pre-uranium mining and non-mining areas, 2019
Biomass accrual and trace-element concentrations in water and periphytic algae at select locations in the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers, Montana, 2015
Brecchia pipe uranium mine bird survey data, Grand Canyon region, 2014-2015
Hydrologic reconnaissance to identify areas of emergent groundwater, Mineral Creek, near Silverton, Colorado, June 2020
Mineralogical analyses of drill core samples from the Canyon uranium-copper deposit, a solution-collapse breccia pipe, Grand Canyon area, Coconino County, Arizona, USA
Geochemical and mineralogical analyses of uranium ores from the Hack II and Pigeon deposits, solution-collapse breccia pipes, Grand Canyon region, Mohave and Coconino Counties, Arizona, USA
Vegetation cover and composition data in environments surrounding uranium mines in the Grand Canyon ecosystem, USA
Influence of dissolved organic carbon on the acute toxicity of copper and zinc to white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) and the cladoceran (Ceriodaphnia dubia)
Hydrologic, biogeochemical, and radon data collected within and adjacent to the Little Wind River near Riverton, Wyoming
Water-Quality, Bed-Sediment, and Biological Data (October 2016 through September 2017) and Statistical Summaries of Data for Streams in the Clark Fork Basin, Montana
Toxicity of aluminum to Ceriodaphnia dubia in natural waters as affected by hardness and dissolved organic matter
Acute and latent effects of zinc on two commonly tested species (Ceriodaphnia dubia and Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Below are publications associated with this science team.