Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Abandoned MLands ResearchPresented at the NAAMLP Meeting in Billings, Mo

Kate Johnson and Stan Ch

U.S. Geological Survey

September 25, 2006
USGS Abandoned Mine Lan

 Geologic Discipline

 Mineral Resources Program Energy Resources Program

 Water Resources Discipline

 State offices National Research Program

 Biological Resources Discipl
Some things we DON’T do

 Inventory abandoned mine s Assess physical hazards Design/engineer remediation  Evaluate individual mine site Long term site monitoring Give grants for remediation 

*at least not with
Some things we DO do

 Process studies and technolog

 Metal deposits Ground and surface waters (in Effects on bio-receptors Coal deposits

 Characterization studies

 Backgrounds and baselines Geoenvironmental models

 Broadly multi-disciplinary rese
USGS Watershed-Scale R

 USGS AML Initiative (1997-2001

http://amli.usgs.gov/

 Animas River watershed in Colo

 Professional Paper 1651 to be pub

 Boulder River watershed in Mon

 Professional Paper 1652 published 

 Partnership with BLM, USDA-FS

of Colorado and Montana, and wcitizen’s group (ARSG) in Silver
Objectives of Watershed-Sca

 To develop scientifically rigorous 

scale characterization methodolo

 To evaluate what scientific tools 

applied, given the geologic settinadequately assess the effects of mining on the watershed

 To assess the effectiveness of in

scientific approaches to evaluate impacted by historical mining
Animas River Watershed, C
Summary of Water Quality Data from 
Lessons Learned from the AM

 Geologic setting controls watershed morp

soil and water geochemistry, and plant ec

 Mineral deposit type controls metals avail

production

 Economics and deposit characteristics co

produced as well as those discarded durin

 Milling methods and commodity recovery 

composition of sediment in the streams

 Extent of hydrothermal alteration and amo

mine wastes and surrounding the deposit chemistry and drive selection of remediati
Regional-Scale Methods to Assess 

Inactive and Abandoned Mines on 

Central Colorado Assessment (200

http://minerals.cr.usgs.gov/projects/colorad

 Examine 300 watersheds selecte

basis of geology, hydrothermal ahistorical mining activity 

 Water chemistry and sediment g Macro invertebrate (MI) populatio

watersheds 

 Metal burdens in about 700 indiv

determine toxicity effects
Some research challeng

 Can we increase the effectiven

scale measurements so that wentirety of the large-scale procattempt to model and predict?

 Can we apply modern digital a

techniques to create multidimemodels of the life cycles of mincommodities?
Some research challeng

 How can we best describe an

the nature and importance of between geologic processes human health?

 Can we determine the relative 

geochemical and geophysicahuman health?
How can you influence USG

 Understand that we are primarily a n

natural science research institution

 Contact us (Kate Johnson at kjohns

Stan Church at schurch@usgs.gov, staff you know) to talk about your in

 Help us to understand your needs Help us partner with others Be involved
On the Internet

 USGS: http://www.usgs.gov Mineral Resources Program

http://minerals.usgs.gov/

 AML Initiative (data and pu

reports): http://amli.usgs.go

 Colorado project: 

http://minerals.cr.usgs.gov/
For more informat

 Contact me:

 kjohnson@usgs.go (703) 648-6110

 Visit our web site:

 http://www.usgs.go

 Come visit USGS