Metals in the Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Coal Creek, Crested Butte, CO

1. Metals in the Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Coal Creek, Crested Butte, CO Scarlett E. Graham July 10, 2006 University of Colorado at Boulder Environmental Engineering REU Summer Student

2. Overview • Motivation • Background • Hypotheses • Methods • Results • Conclusions

3. Motivations • Coal Creek Watershed Coalition • Standard Mine is an EPA Superfund Site • Coal Creek is a drinking water supply • Recreation is a major contributor to the economy

4. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) • 1/3 of EPA Superfund Sites in Colorado are devoted to cleaning up abandoned mines. • Characteristics: - low pH - high metal concentrations - elevated sulfate levels - excessive suspended solids • Heavy Metals: Fe, Mn, Al

5. Geochemical processes: (1) 4FeS2(s) + 14O2(g) + 4H2O(l)    4Fe2+ + 8SO42- + 8H+ (2) 4Fe2+ + O2(g) + 4H+  ---------->  4Fe3+ + 2H2O(l)    (3) 4Fe3+ + 12 H2O(l)       4Fe(OH)3 (s) + 12H+ (4) 4FeS2(s) + 15O2 (g) + 14H2O(l)  4Fe(OH)3(s) + 8SO42- + 16H+ pyrite “yellow boy” Acidophilic bacteria

6. N N Slate River Slate River Scarp Ridge Mt. Mt. Lake Irwin Lake Irwin Emmons Emmons Standard Mine Keystone Mine Keystone Mine Standard Mine Iron Fen Iron Fen Forest Forest Queen Mine Crested Butte Queen Crested Butte Mine Elk Creek Elk Creek Coal Creek Coal Creek Wildcat Creek Wildcat Creek Kebler Pass Kebler Pass Splain’s Gulch Splain ’ ’ s Gulch : Coal Creek WatershedGunnison County, CO

7. Benthic Macroinvertebrates • Stoneflies, Order Plecoptera: sensitive • Caddisflies , Order Trichoptera: moderately tolerant • Mayflies, Order Ephemeroptera: sensitive

8. Past Research • Will Clements, CSU: mayflies • Susan Bautts, 2005 Drew Bryenton, REU 2004: Lefthand Creek. • Brianna Shanklin, 2005: Coal Creek • ??Axtmann, adkfjljajdf (metal speciation trend)

9. Hypotheses • Elevated metal concentrations and reduced diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates after Elk Creek Tributary, Iron Fen Drainages, Mt. Emmons Effluent. • Correlations between sediments and benthic macroinvertebrate metal content. • Concentrations will follow metal speciation trends. --take this out if I don’t have time?!

10. D/S of Crested Butte ~CC-119 Wildcat Trail Bridge D/S of drinking H2O inflow U/S Mt. Emmons Affluent ~CC-218 Iron Fen Drainages ~CC-210 D/S of Elk CCUPUP ~CC-203 ~CC-207.5 U/S of Elk Sample Sites along Coal Creek

11. Methods: Sampling • June 14 & 15 2006 simultaneously with sediments. • 13 sampling sites along 9.5km, starting point: 2005/Shanklin Injection Site. • In Stream: kick and overturn rocks while dragging mess net behind. • Emptied nets into buckets and trays and sorted stoneflies • Stored in 60 ml bottles on ice until reached the lab

12. Methods: Sampling • June 14 & 15 2006 simultaneously with sediments. • 13 sampling sites along 9.5km, starting point: 2005/Shanklin Injection Site. • In Stream: kick and overturn rocks while dragging mess net behind. • Emptied nets into buckets and trays and sorted stoneflies • Stored in 60 ml bottles on ice until reached the lab Frrrannnnnieeeee, give that back!

13. Frraaannie give that BACK!

14. Methods: Digestion • Rinsed with Milli-Q water • Dried in oven • Measured dry weight • Added Digestion solution: 1:1 soln. of 15.8M HNO3 and 30% H2O2 + H2O • Shook in hot water bath • Allowed to settle and supernatant removed and filtered with 0.45µm nylon filters.

15. Methods: ICP-OES • Diluted 9:1 solution • Measured Metal Content with ICP-OES (ARD, Model 3410+) in the LEGS Lab, CU Boulder • Measured Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn concentrations in ppm.

16. Results

17. CHART!

18. µg/g dry weight U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages U/S Mt. Emmons Effluent D/S of Elk D/S Mt EEffluent

19. µg/g dry weight U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages U/S Mt. Emmons Effluent D/S of Elk D/S Mt EEffluent Distance (km)

20. µg/g dry wt. Distance (km) U/S of Elk D/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages U/S Mt. E. Effluent D/S Mt. E.Effluent

21. Iron Concentrations (modified) µg/g dry weight Distance (km) U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages D/S of Elk U/S Mt. E. Effluent D/S Mt. E.Effluent

22. Iron Concentrations (modified) µg/g dry weight Distance (km) U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages D/S of Elk U/S Mt. E. Effluent D/S Mt. E.Effluent

23. Copper Concentrations Cu Concentrations µg/g dry weight Distance (km) U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages D/S of Elk U/S Mt. E. Effluent D/S Mt. E.Effluent

24. Copper Concentrations Cu Concentrations µg/g dry weight Distance (km) U/S of Elk Iron Fen Drainages D/S of Elk U/S Mt. E. Effluent D/S Mt. E.Effluent

25. Metal Concentrations (compiled) µg/g dry weight Distance (km) D/S of Elk U/S of Elk Creek Iron Fen Drainages U/S Mt. Emmons Effluent D/S Mt E Effluent Zn Fe Cu

26. Conclusions • Elevated metal concentrations occur after Elk Creek, Mt. Emmons treatment plant effluent • Benthic Macroinvertebrate populations affected directly after polluted inflow but then improved down the stream. • High concentrations of iron in background site of stream.

27. Correlations to Frannie and Hallie’s data

28. Further Study • Do some practice runs of the macroinvertebrate sampling before actually starting. • Investigate fish populations • Use ICP-MS for other metals found below detection limit.

29. Acknowledgements

30. Questions Scarlett Graham Allegheny College grahams@allegheny.edu