Assessment of contaminated streambed sediment in the Kansas part of the historic Tri-State Lead and Zinc Mining District, Cherokee County, 2004

Abstract

The Tri-State Mining District in parts of southeast Kansas, southwest Missouri, and northeast Oklahoma was the primary source of lead and zinc ore in the world for much of its 120-year history. Commercial mining in the Kansas part of the Tri-State Mining District began in the mid-1870s and lasted until 1970. The environmental degradation caused by 100 years of mining resulted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listing the Cherokee County, Kansas, part of the Tri-State Mining District on its National Priority List as a superfund hazardous waste site in 1983. To assist in the injury determination and quantification step of the natural resource damage assessment for Cherokee County, Kansas, the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment conducted a two-phase study of the occurrence and distribution of contaminated streambed and lake-bottom sediment. Phase I of this study determined concentrations of 28 trace elements and nutrients in streambed sediment at 87 sampling sites in the Spring River and Tar Creek watersheds in Kansas. Phase II determined bottom-sediment concentrations and mass accumulation and historic transport of trace elements into Empire Lake, an impoundment of the Spring River. The purpose of this report is to present the results of phase I of this study. Streambed-sediment samples (98 composite samples) were collected from the upper 0.8 inch of sediment deposition, and the less than 0.063-millimeter (silt-and clay-size particles) fraction was analyzed for selected trace element and nutrient concentrations. Restricting analyses to the silt/clay fraction reduced particle-size induced variability between sampling sites and permitted direct site-to-site concentration comparisons. Concentrations of cadmium, lead, and zinc had much greater ranges in concentrations than any other elements analyzed. Ranges in concentrations were 0.6 to 460 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) for cadmium, 22 to 7,400 mg/kg for lead, and 100 to 45,000 mg/kg for zinc, with median concentrations of 13, 180, and 1,800 mg/kg, respectively. Concentrations were largest at sampling sites in the Short, Tar, and Spring Branch Creek watersheds containing the most intensively mineaffected streams. Concentrations of cadmium, lead, and zinc in streambed sediment from sampling sites on the Spring River increased about 18, 7, and 17 times, respectively, within its 22mile length in the study area. This finding may explain a downward trend in mussel diversity and density over the same length of stream as determined by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Concentrations of cadmium, lead, and zinc exceeded selected probable effects sediment-quality guidelines (4.98, 128, and 459 mg/kg, respectively) in 64, 56, and 75 percent of samples, respectively, from the 87 sampling sites. These guideline values are not regulatory criteria. Concentrations larger than probable effects guidelines frequently cause toxicological effects to some aquatic-life f...

A Screening-Level Assessment of Lead, Cadmium, and Zinc in Fish and Crayfish from Northeastern Oklahoma, USA

“…Pope, 2005;Spruill, 1987). Within Oklahoma, sources are concentrated primarily in the watershed of Tar Creek (TC), which joins the NR in Miami, near the upper end of Grand Lake of the Cherokees (Grand Lake; Fig.…”

“…Although metals contamination in TSMD rivers and streams has been well documented (e.g. Pope, 2005), concentrations in fish as consumed by local inhabitants were unknown in 2001 because human health risk is typically evaluated on the basis of fillet samples (USEPA, 1990(USEPA, , 2000a. Metals in aquatic organisms are not homogeneously distributed (Crawford & Luoma, 1993;Goldstein & DeWeese, 1999;Schmitt & Finger, 1987;Settle & Patterson, 1980).…”

Legacy Lead from Past Mining Activity and Gasoline Additives: Evidence from Lead Isotopes and Trace Element Geochemical Studies in the White River Basin, Southern Ozark Region, USA

“…The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has recommended sediment-quality guidelines in the form of level-of-concern concentrations for several toxic trace elements [22]. These concentrations were derived from biological-effects correlations made on the basis of paired field and laboratory data to relate the incidence of adverse biological effects to dry-weight sediment concentrations [22].…”

Quality characteristics of ground water in the Ozark aquifer of northwestern Arkansas, southeastern Kansas, southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, 2006-07

“…Trace elements were of particular concern because the historic use of the Tri-State Mining District for production of lead and zinc ores provided the opportunity for water to be contaminated by trace elements associated with these ores. Lead and zinc were the most economically important trace elements associated with the minerals mined in the Tri-State District (Pope, 2005).…”

“…Commercial lead-and-zinc mining in the Mississippian-age rock formations of the Springfield Plateau aquifer occurred from about 1870 to 1970 in the area of southeastern Kansas, southwestern Missouri, and northeastern Oklahoma known as the Tri-State Mining District (Gibson, 1972). The legacy of this long mining history includes trace element (cadmium, lead, and zinc) contamination of large areas of the Springfield Plateau aquifer (Barks, 1977;Playton and others, 1980;Spruill, 1987) and surface-water sources (Bailey, 1911;Pope, 2005;Juracek, 2006;Angelo and others, 2007).…”