Checking billy barr’s snow log…
Red Mountain Creek is located in the rich mineralized San Juan Mountains of\nSouthwestern Colorado, where mining from the mid 1800s through the late 1970s\noccurred. Sampling of the Uncompahgre River in the late 1970s, which is downstream of\nthe five tailings ponds, showed high levels of heavy metals. It was assumed the\nremaining mine tailings were responsible for the high concentrations of heavy metals in\nthe waters down-valley from the deposits. Thus, in 1983, remediation began with the use\nof direct re-vegetation of the deposits. This remediation was required as a result of\nNational laws, which mandated the state of Colorado and the Idarado Mining Company\ndevelop a Remedial Action Plan (RAP). Interestingly, the tailings were assumed to be\nthe sole source.\n\nStudies over the past twenty years, have suggested for site-specific locations, the\nhighly mineralized zones may be additional sources of inputting heavy metals into\nstreams. We assumed that heavy metal concentrations found in the streams come from\nthe weathering of highly complex mineral assemblages, as well as from mining\nactivities. It was our objective to establish the geochemistry in streams in the areas above\nand below mining activity and remediated areas and to evaluate the impact of\nremediation. Water quality data were collected for Aluminum (Al), Cadmium (Cd),\nCopper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), and\ntemperature, specific conductance, pH and dissolved oxygen.\n\nTwenty-seven samples were filtered with a 0.45μm membrane filter and twenty-seven\nwere left unfiltered. Samples were collected in-stream after determining discharge\nfor each stream. The samples of RMC were evaluated by using a Shapiro-Wilks test.\nThere is a definitive difference between pH and dissolved metal concentrations when\ncomparing streams on the east side to west side. In addition, there were five distinct\nconfluences with Red Mountain Creek that provided significant changes in water\nquality. This was due to hydrothermally altered bedrock, which had and had not been\nmined.
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