Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Source Identification of Particulate Metals/Metalloids Deposited in the San Juan River Delta of Lake Powell, USA

  • Published:
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Whereas mining and non-mining sourced particulate metal/metalloids (PM) (> 0.45 μm) are present in the tributaries of the San Juan River, USA, the individual contributions of PM from the San Juan River tributaries to the sediment of the San Juan River Delta of Lake Powell were previously unknown. Suspended PM signatures, including enrichment factors (ratios of PM concentrations to ubiquitous metals such as aluminum), lead isotopes, color, and particle size, were used to tie layers in a San Juan River sediment core to upstream tributary sources. Tributary PM concentrations and loads were compared to Lower San Juan River suspended PM loads to estimate the relative contribution of tributary PM (both mining and non-mining sourced) directly upstream of Lake Powell. Results suggest elevated enrichment factors of lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc in deposited sediment were sourced from mined tributaries, whereas elevated manganese in deposited sediment was sourced from unmined tributaries. Sediment Pb isotope ratios reflected the depleted signature of the mineralized vein (present in the headwaters of mined tributaries), the enriched signature of the Chinle Sandstone (predominant underlying geology of unmined tributaries), or a mixture of these two endmembers. These independent lines of evidence were used to link probable tributary source and runoff category to sediment layers, where ~ 10% and 5% of the overall PM deposited in the sediment core was attributed to mining versus non-mining sources, respectively. Because traditional dating methods were not possible, runoff category signatures were used to estimate that the 3.37 m San Juan River Delta core was deposited over ~ 1.3 years.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abell, R. (1994). San Juan River Basin water quality and contaminants review (p. 1). Museum of Southwestern Biology.

  • Arditsoglou, A., & Samara, C. (2005). Levels of total suspended particulate matter and major trace elements in Kosovo: a source identification and apportionment study. Chemosphere, 59, 669–678.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Axtmann, E. V., & Luoma, S. N. (1991). Large-scale distribution of metal contamination in the fine-grained sediments of the Clark Fork River, Montana, U.S.A. Applied Geochemistry, 6, 75–88.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Besser, J. M., & Leib, K. J. (2007). Toxicity of metals in water and sediment to aquatic biota. In Integrated investigations of environmental effects of historical mining in the Animas River Watersehd, San Juan County, Colorado. (Professional Paper 1651) (pp. 837–849). Reston: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliesner, R., & Lamarra, V. (2000). San Juan River basin recovery implementation program: hydrology, geomorphology and habitat studies. U.S: Fish and Wildlife Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloesch, J., & Evans, R. D. (1982). Lead-210 dating of sediments compared with accumulation rates estimated by natural markers and measured with sediment traps. Hydrobiologia, 92, 579–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borrok, D. M., Wanty, R. B., Ridely, W. I., Lamothe, P. J., Kimball, B. A., Verplanck, P. L., & Runkel, R. L. (2009). Application of iron and zinc isotopes to track the sources and mechanisms of metal loading in a mountain watershed. Applied Geochemistry, 24, 1270–1277.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, V. G., & Juracek, K. E. (2001). Variability of metals in reservoir sediment from two adjacent basins in the central Great Plains. Environmental Geology, 40(4–5), 470–481.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Church, S. E., Kimball, B. A., Fey, D. L., Ferderer, D. A., Yager, T. J., & Vaughn, R. B. (1997). Source, transport, and partitioning of metals between water, colloids, and bed sediment of the Animas River, Colorado. United States Geological Survey, 97–151.

  • Clow, S., & Stephens, D. B. (2005). Nonpoint source assessment of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Stephens and Associates, Inc.

  • Coulthard, T. J., & Macklin, M. G. (2003). Modeling long-term contamination in river systems from historical metal mining. Geological Society of America, 31(5), 451–454.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Covelli, S., & Fontolan, G. (1997). Application of a normalization procedure in determining regional geochemical baselines, Gulf of Trieste, Italy. Environmental Geology, 30(1–2), 34–45.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Czuba, J. A., Magirl, C. S., Czuba, C. R., Grossman, E. E., Curran, C. A., Gendaszek, A. S., & Dinicola, R. S. (2011). Sediment load from major rivers into Puget Sound and its adjacent waters. US Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey.

  • Dologopolova, A., Weiss, D. J., Seltmann, R., Kober, B., Mason, T. F. D., Coles, B., & Stanley, C. J. (2006). Use of isotope ratios to assess sources of Pb and Zn dispersed in the environment during mining and ore processing with the Orlovka-Spokoinoe mining site (Russia). Applied Geochemistry, 21, 563–579.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, M., Moore, S. A., & Stumpf, S. E. (2016). Water quality monitoring for the Mancos River in Mesa Verde National Park: 2012-2013 summary report. In National Park Service: Natural resource data series NSP/SCPN/NRDS-2016/1221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, T. D., & Paulson, L. J. (1983). The influence of Lake Powell on the suspended sediment-phosphorus dynamics of the Colorado River inflow to Lake Mead (p. 57). University of Nevada Las Vegas.

  • Graney, J. R., Halliday, A. N., Keeler, G. J., Nriagu, J. O., Robbins, J. A., & Norton, S. A. (1995). Isotopic records of lead pollution in lake sediments from northeastern United States. Geochmica et Cosmochimica Acta, 50(9), 1715–1728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, R. J, Taylor, H. E., Antweiler, R. C., Graham, D. D., Fisk, G. G., Riggins, S. G., and Flynn, M. E. (2005). Sediment chemistry of the Colorado River delta of Lake Powell, Utah, 2001: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 2005-1178, p. 33.

  • Hornewer, N. J. (2014). Sediment and water chemistry of the San Juan River and Escalante River Deltas of Lake Powell, Utah, 2010–2011. United States Geologic Survey. Open File Report 2014-1096.

  • Irons, W. V., Hembree, C. H., & Oakland, G. L. (1965). Water resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin. Technical report: Washington, D.C., U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 441, 370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimball, B. A., Runkel, R. L., Walton-Day, K., & Bencala, K. E. (2002). Assessment of metal loads in watersheds affected by acid mine drainage by using tracer injection and synoptic sampling: Cement creek, Colorado, USA. Applied Geochemistry, 17, 1183–1207.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kimball, B. A., Walton-Day, K., & Runkel, R. L. (2007). Quantification of metal loading by tracer injection and synoptic sampling, 1996-2000, chap. E9 of Church, S.E., von Guerard, P., and Finger, S.E., eds., Integrated investigations of environmental effects of historical mining in the Animas River Watershed, San Juan County, Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1651, 417–495.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimball, B. E., Mathur, R., Dohnalkova, A. C., Wall, A. J., Runkel, R. L., & Brantely, S. L. (2009). Copper isotope fractionation in acid mine drainage. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta, 73, 1247–1263.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Larrick, C. (2010). McElmo Creek, lower San Juan River, Colorado and cottonwood wash. Utah Water Quality and Trends Assessment, 2009–2010.

  • Larrick, C., & Ashmore, J. (2012). Mancos River water quality and trends assessment: 2011 – 2012. Ute Mountain Ute tribe.

  • Leib, K. J., Mast, M. A., & Wright, W. G. (2003). Using water-quality profiles to characterize seasonal water quality and loading the upper Animas River Basin, Southwestern Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey, Water-Resources Investigations Report 02–4230.

  • Li, S., & Zhang, Q. (2010). Risk assessment and seasonal variations of dissolved trace elements and heavy metals in the upper Han River, China. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 181, 1051–1058.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Malher, B., Van Metre, P. C., & Callender, E. (2006). Trends in metals in urban and reference lake sediments across the United States, 1970 to 2001. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 25(7), 1698–1709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mau, D. P., & Christensen, V. G. (2000). Comparison of sediment deposition in reservoirs of four Kansas watersheds. United States Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 102-00.

  • Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS). (2017). United States Geological Survey. Accessed at: https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/.

  • Munsell Color x-rite. Munsell Soil Color Charts with Genuine Munsell Color Chips. (2009). Year Revised, 2009, Munsell Color 4300 44th Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49512, USA.

  • Newman, W. L. (1962). Distribution of elements in sedimentary rocks of the Colorado plateau- a preliminary report. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1107-F.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palau Estevan, C. V., Arregui De La Cruz, F., & Carlos Alberola, M. D. M. (2012). Burst detection in water networks using principal component analysis. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 138(1), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paschke, S., Kimball, B. A., & Runkel, R. L. (2005). Quantification and Simulation of Metal Loading to the Upper Animas River, Eureka to Silverton, San Juan County, Colorado, September 1997 and August 1998. United States Geological Survey, Scientific Investigations Report 2005–5054.

  • Potter, L. D., & Drake, C. L. (1989). Lake Powell. Virgin flow to dynamo. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team. (2013). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riba, I., DelValls, T. A., Forja, J. M., & Gomez-Parra, A. (2002). Influence of the Aznaclollar mining spill on the vertical distribution of heavy metals in sediments from the Guadalquivir estuary (SW Spain). Marine Pollution Bulletin, 44, 39–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Ferire, L., Avasarala, S., Abdul-Mehdi, S. A., Agnew, D., Hoover, J. H., Artyushkova, K., Latta, D. E., Peterson, E. J., Lewis, J., Crossey, L. J., Brearley, A. J., & Cerrato, J. M. (2016). Post gold king mine spill investigation of metal stability in water and sediments of the Animas River watershed. Environmental Science and Technology, 50(2), 11539–11548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runkel, R. L., Crawford, C. G., & Cohn, T. A. (2004). Load estimator (LOADEST): a FORTRAN program for estimating constituent loads in streams and rivers: U.S. Geological Survey techniques and methods book 4, chapter A5, 69.

  • Runkel, R. L., Kimball, B. A., Walton-Day, K., Verplanck, P. L., & Broshears, R. E. (2012). Evaluating remedial alternatives for an acid mine drainage stream: a model post audit. Environmental Science and Technology, 46(1), 340–347. https://doi.org/10.1021/es2038504.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Runkel, R. L., Verplanck, P. L., Kimball, B. A., & Walton-Day, K. (2018). Cinnamon Gulch revisited: another look at separating natural and mining-impacted contributions to instream metal load. Applied Geochemistry, 95, 206–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2018.04.010.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stanford, J. A., & Ward, J. V. (1991). Limnology of Lake Powell and the chemistry of the Colorado River. In Colorado River ecology and dam management: proceedings of a symposium May 24–25, 1990 (p. 75). Santa Fe: New Mexico National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, K., Cyterski, M., Knightes, C., Kraemer, S.R., Washington, J., Preto, L., & Avant, B. (2017). Analysis of the transport and fate of metals released from the Gold King Mine in the Animas and San Juan Rivers. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA/600/R-16/296.

  • Thompson, K., & Mundorff, J. C. (1982). Characteristics of suspended sediment in the San Juan River near bluff (pp. 82–4104). Utah: United States Geological Survey. Water Research Investigations.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). (2015). Technical Evaluation of the Gold King Mine Incident. San Juan County, Colorado. Accessed 2016 at http://www.usbr.gov/docs/goldkingminereport.pdf. pp 132.

  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). (2019). About us. In Accessed 2019 at https://www.usbr.gov/main/about/fact.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). (2011). Natural contamination from the Mancos Shale. Prepared by the Environmental Sciences Laboratory Legacy Management, April 2011. In LMS/S07480 ESL-RPT-2011-01.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2016). One year after the Goldin King Mine Incident: a retrospective of EPA’s efforts to restore and protect impacted communities.

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2017). Storage and retrieval database. Water quality data. National Water Quality Monitoring Council. Accessed at https://www.waterqualitydata.us/portal/

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bonita Peak Mining District Unincorporated, CO. Superfund Site. Accessed 2018 at https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=0802497#bkground

  • U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). (2016). Determining water-quality trends using sediment cores, White Rock Lake, Dallas. United States Geological Survey. Accessed at https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1171/html/cores.htm

  • U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Method 19–42 Element inductively coupled plasma – atomic emissions spectrometry – mass spectrometry (ICP-AES-MS), multi-acid (ICP-42). United States Geological Survey. Accessed 2018 at https://minerals.usgs.gov/science/analytical-chemistry/method19.html

  • Utah Division of Water Quality (UDWQ), Utah Department of Health, United States Geological Survey. (2018). Integration of long-term impacts from historical mine drainage and episodic release of metals to sediments along the San Juan River and Lake Powell System in Utah. Accessed at: https://deq.utah.gov/legacy/topics/water-quality/gold-king-mine/index.htm

  • Vernieu, W. S. (1997). Effects of reservoir drawdown on resuspension of deltaic sediments in Lake Powell. Journal of Lake and Reservoir Management, 13(1), 67–78.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., Yang, L., Kong, L., Liu, E., Wang, L., & Zhu, J. (2015). Spatial distribution, ecological risk assessment and source identification for heavy metals in surface sediments from Dongping Lake, Shandong, East China. Catena, 125, 200–205.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (Contract #171990). The authors wish to thank the scientists at the NNEPA, USGS, and DEQ for their support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Logan Frederick, William P. Johnson, Thure Cerling & Diego Fernandez

  2. Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    James VanDerslice

Authors
  1. Logan Frederick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William P. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Thure Cerling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Diego Fernandez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. James VanDerslice
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William P. Johnson.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Highlights

•Contributions of suspended particulate metals and metalloids to the San Juan River from mined and unmined tributaries were determined using tributary geochemical signatures that reflected legacy mining impacts or the predominant underlying geology.

•Suspended particulates in tributaries were linked to layers in San Juan River Delta sediment cores through geochemical signatures, such as depleted Pb isotopes and elevated Pb to Al, Cd to Al, and Zn to Al ratios reflective of mining impact, as well as enriched Pb isotopes, elevated Mn to Al, and red color reflective of unmined sources

•Approximately 10% of PM deposited in a sediment core was attributed to mining sources, whereas approximately 80% of PM deposited in a sediment core was attributed to a mixture of sources.

•Seasonal accumulation in sediment traps indicated that the 3.37-m core was deposited over approximately 1.3 years

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 5264 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Frederick, L., Johnson, W.P., Cerling, T. et al. Source Identification of Particulate Metals/Metalloids Deposited in the San Juan River Delta of Lake Powell, USA. Water Air Soil Pollut 230, 128 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-019-4176-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-019-4176-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation