Cutthroat trout were once abundant in Colorado’s Snake River, but water runoff contaminated with zinc and other minerals from abandoned mines along the tributary rendered much of the waterway uninhabitable to fish and other native species. This runoff and its effects on the Snake River—which drains into Dillon Reservoir, a major water supply for Denver and its surrounding regions—came to light in the early 1960s after scientists measured the river’s water quality and found high levels of aluminum, iron, and manganese. Scientists now have found yet another problem making the situation worse: Closed mines and climate change are also causing rare earth elements (REEs)—a set of 17 metallic elements that are essential to many of today’s electronic devices—to leach into the river, according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology.
Researchers found that current concentrations of REEs in streams range from 1 to 100 micrograms per liter. “Typically, the concentrations [of REEs] in surface water would be 3–5 orders of magnitude lower, so these concentrations are very high,” said Diane McKnight, an engineering professor and fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder and coauthor of the study.
McKnight has been studying acid mine runoff in the Snake River watershed for decades. This problem isn’t limited to the Snake River system, though, she said. There are about half a million abandoned hardrock mines...
Read Full Story: https://eos.org/articles/new-contamination-concern-for-colorado-streams
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