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Data Series 442

Prepared in cooperation with San Juan County San Juan Resource Conservation and Development Council U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Geochemical Data for Upper Mineral Creek, Colorado, Under Existing Ambient Conditions and During an Experimental pH Modification, August 2005

By Robert L. Runkel, Briant A. Kimball, Judy I. Steiger, and Katherine Walton-Day

Abstract

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Mineral Creek, an acid mine drainage stream in south-western Colorado, was the subject of a water-quality study that employed a paired synoptic approach. Under the paired synoptic approach, two synoptic sampling campaigns were conducted on the same study reach. The initial synoptic campaign, conducted August 22, 2005, documented stream-water quality under existing ambient conditions. A second synoptic campaign, conducted August 24, 2005, documented stream-water quality during a pH-modification experiment that elevated the pH of Mineral Creek. The experimental pH modification was designed to determine the potential reductions in dissolved constituent concentrations that would result from the implementation of an active treatment system for acid mine drainage. During both synoptic sampling campaigns, a solution containing lithium bromide was injected continuously to allow for the calculation of streamflow using the tracer-dilution method. Synoptic water-quality samples were collected from 30 stream sites and 11 inflow locations along the 2-kilometer study reach. Data from the study provide spatial profiles of pH, concentration, and streamflow under both existing and experimentally-altered conditions. This report presents the data obtained August 21–24, 2005, as well as the methods used for sample collection and data analysis.

First posted June 11, 2009

For additional information contact:

Director, Colorado Water Science Center
United States Geological Survey
Box 25046, Mail Stop 415
Denver, CO 80225

http://co.water.usgs.gov/

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Suggested citation:

Runkel, R.L., Kimball, B.A., Steiger, J.I., and Walton-Day, K., 2009, Geochemical data for upper Mineral Creek, Colorado, under existing ambient conditions and during an experimental pH modification, August 2005: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 442, 41p.



Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Acknowledgments

References


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