Lead-rich sediments, Coeur d'Alene River Valley, Idaho: area, volume, tonnage, and lead content

Bookstrom, Arthur A.; Box, Stephen E.; Campbell, Julie K.; Foster, Kathryn I.; Jackson, Berne L.

doi:10.3133/ofr01140

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…An understanding of these processes is critical for successful management and remediation of these systems. One such ecosystem is the Coeur d'Alene River basin where a century of mining activities, hydrologic transport, and biogeochemical reactions have resulted in the dispersion of dissolved and particulate metals throughout the system ( − ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Precipitation and Sorption of Elements during Mixing of River Water and Porewater in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin

Balistrieri

Box

Tonkin

2003

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Reddish brown flocs form along the edge of the Coeur d'Alene River when porewater drains into river water during the annual lowering of water level in the basin. The precipitates are efficient scavengers of dissolved elements and have characteristics that may make metals associated with them bioavailable. This work characterizes the geochemistry of the porewater and models the formation and composition of the flocs. Porewater is slightly acidic, has suboxic to anoxic characteristics, tends to have higher alkalinity, and contains elevated concentrations of many constituents relative to river water. Laboratory mixing experiments involving porewater and river water were done to produce the precipitates. Thermodynamic predictions using PHREEQC indicate that predicted amounts of ferrihydrite and gibbsite agree with removal of Fe and Al. Predictions of element removal by adsorption onto ferrihydrite are consistent with observed removal using a combination of surface complexation constants for the generalized two-layer model (As and Se), alternative surface constants derived from experiments at high sorbate-to-sorbent ratios (Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn), and adjusted surface constants to fit experimental data (Cr, Mo, and Sb). This new set of surface complexation constants needs further testing in other contaminated systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Precipitation and Sorption of Elements during Mixing of River Water and Porewater in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin

Balistrieri

Box

Tonkin

2003

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…For example, studies examining the retention of solids, metals, and nutrients have been undertaken on the run-of-the-river Iron Gate Reservoir on the Danube River, eastern Europe, that was impacted by the Baia Mare, Romania, cyanide spill in 2000, but the reservoir has also received decades of waste water and contaminants from a population of~80 million inhabitants of the heavily industrialized Danube watershed (Babić-Mladenović et al, 2002;Teodoru & Wehrli, 2005;Vukovic et al, 2014). Studies on the biological and geomorphological impacts of solids and metal loadings on Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, USA, which has been affected by the deposition of an estimated 75 M tons of contaminated sediments from the Bunker Hills mine, are comprehensive; however, the wastes have accumulated over a century of mining (Bookstrom et al, 2001). Spills into lakes can have substantial consequences for lake physics and biota; for example, a combination of a series of acute spills and long-term leaching of saline water from the Terrafame Talvivaara mine, Finland, turned nearby Lake Kivijärvi meromictic, sediment became heavily contaminated, and phytoplankton and zooplankton communities have been significantly altered (Leppänen et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Turbidity Linked to Physical Dynamics in a Deep Lake Following the Catastrophic 2014 Mount Polley Mine Tailings Spill

Hamilton

Laval

Petticrew

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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The catastrophic August 2014 Mount Polley tailings spill, the second largest ever documented, sent ~18 Mm3 of waste plunging to the bottom of the >100 m deep West Basin of Quesnel Lake, British Columbia, a critical West Coast salmon habitat. To understand the impact of the spill on the lake, including the fate of suspended solids, we examine changes in physical water properties over 11 years (2006–2017) using water column profiles, moored timeseries, and satellite imagery. Contaminated waters were initially largely confined to the hypolimnion; however, during autumn 2014 turnover, turbid waters were mixed to the surface, resulting in the clear blue lake turning bright green. Twelve months after the spill, the lake's temperature, conductivity, and turbidity temporarily returned to pre‐spill conditions; however, initiation of mine effluent discharge in late 2015 was associated with a subsequent 15 μS cm−1 conductivity increase above historic values. Importantly, a post‐spill 1–2.5 formazin turbidity unit hypolimnetic turbidity increase was observed during spring and fall turnovers of 2015–2017, which appeared to be due to resuspension of a thin layer of unconsolidated spill‐related material from the lake bed driven by large internal seiche motions. This process implies spill contaminants may be seasonally mobilized into the water column, with potentially detrimental impacts on aquatic ecology. Our findings underscore that basin‐scale physical processes, including seasonal turnover and internal seiches, must be accounted for, even in deep lakes, to understand the long‐term impact of the ever increasing number of tailings spills into aquatic ecosystems.

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“…The primary health concern for humans in the CDA River Basin was determined to be Pb (National Research Council, 2005), particularly with respect to the risk of elevated blood Pb levels in children and pregnant women. Soils in the CDA region have Pb concentrations ranging from 15 to 38,520 mg kg −1 , with a median of 3150 mg kg −1 ( n = 998) (Bookstrom, et al, 2001). Wildlife, including many trophic levels and hundreds of species, are also impacted by elevated contaminant levels in soils (National Research Council, 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Lead Immobilization and Phosphorus Availability in Phosphate-Amended, Mine-Contaminated Soils

2015

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Over a century of mining activities in the Coeur d'Alene mining district in Idaho have contaminated soils of the downstream basin with lead, arsenic, zinc, and cadmium. Elevated soil-Pb levels are a significant hazard to the health of humans and wildlife in the region. One in situ treatment approach for remediating Pb-contaminated soils is application of phosphorus to promote the formation of lead phosphate minerals that have low solubility. However, this remediation strategy may result in excess P runoff to surface waters, which can lead to eutrophication, particularly when used in riparian areas. Research presented in this paper describes experiments in which monopotassium phosphate (KHPO) solution was applied to two Pb-contaminated soils from the Coeur d'Alene River valley to determine how P loading rates affect both Pb immobilization and P mobility and to determine if an optimal P amendment rate can be predicted. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure extractions were used to assess changes in Pb availability for uptake by an organism or mobilization through the soil, and Bray extractions were used to assess P availability for leaching out of the soil system. For the two soils tested, increasing phosphate amendment caused decreasing Pb extractability. Phosphorus amendment rates above approximately 70 mg kg, however, did not provide any additional Pb immobilization. Phosphorus availability increased with increasing phosphate application rate. An empirical relationship is presented that predicts extractable Pb as a function of extractable P. This relationship allows for prediction of the amount of Pb that can be immobilized at specified P leaching amounts, such as regulatory levels that have been established to minimize risks for surface water degradation. Results suggest that phosphate can be used to immobilize Pb in contaminated wetland or riparian areas without posing risks of P loading to surface waters.

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Lead-rich sediments, Coeur d'Alene River Valley, Idaho: area, volume, tonnage, and lead content

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

Modeling Precipitation and Sorption of Elements during Mixing of River Water and Porewater in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin

Modeling Precipitation and Sorption of Elements during Mixing of River Water and Porewater in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin

Seasonal Turbidity Linked to Physical Dynamics in a Deep Lake Following the Catastrophic 2014 Mount Polley Mine Tailings Spill

Lead Immobilization and Phosphorus Availability in Phosphate-Amended, Mine-Contaminated Soils

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