Assignment - Toxicology / Geology of Mining
Instructions
Part I.
Acquire data:
• Review a pdf file from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) concerning the Standard Mine, CO Superfund Site-
pdf file : Geochemistry of Standard Mine Waters, Gunnison County, Colorado, July 2009
• Review the EPA's site for the Standard Mine Superfund Site cleanup
• Review the following URL to download a pdf from the EPA concerning mining and mineral processing damage
EPA Paper https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/web/pdf/damage.pdf
The purpose of this lab is to learn how to navigate a scientific paper as well as observe the environmental effects of mining.
Part II:
Questions:
1. The two pdf's you downloaded are examples of the type of scientific papers you should be using for your paper later this semester, and the EPA website would be an example of an "other" source that can also be used. Look at the Reference page for the USGS paper. Describe how its references are formatted.
2. Look at Figure 1 in the USGS paper. Usually, when you see a river fork on a map, the "tines" point upstream and the "handle" points downstream. Are the rivers near Standard Mine in Figure 1 flowing towards the West or the East?
3. Look at the heading "Water-Chemistry Sampling" under the "Methods" section of the USGS paper. Name one property of the water that scientists measured.
4. Look at Figure 10 in the USGS paper. What is this figure trying to show you? (Figure 10 consists of 6 different graphs over two pages)
5. Look at the Summary and Conclusions section of the USGS paper. What does the paper say is the source of the dissolved cadmium, zinc, copper, and lead?
6. Now let's look at the EPA Website concerning this same mine. Look at the "Enforcement Information" section. How is the cleanup at this mine site being paid for?
7. Now let's look at the EPA Paper concerning pollution around many other mine sites. Locate the page talking about the American Girl mine in California. What metal were they mining for?
8. What kind of pollution was released at this site?
9. Check out the page for the Urad Mine and Mill, Colorado, in the EPA paper. What heavy metals and other compounds had consistently been detected in the Henderson Mine discharge, which flowed into lower Urad reservoir?
10. Skim over the rest of the EPA paperand describe one of the spills/releases that you think is particularly troubling.