During the summer of 1989 surface sediment samples were collected in Lake Coeur d'Alene, the Coeur d'Alene River and the St Joe River, Idaho, at a density of approximately one sample per square kilometre. Additional samples were collected from the banks of the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene and the Coeur d'Alene Rivers in 1991. All the samples were collected to determine trace element concentrations, partitioning and distribution patterns, and to relate them to mining, mining related and discharge operations that have occurred in the Coeur d'Alene district since the 1880s, some of which are ongoing.

Most of the surface sediments in Lake Coeur d'Alene north of Conkling Point and Carey Bay are substantially enriched in Ag, As, Cu, Cd, Hg, Pb, Sb and Zn relative to unaffected sediments in the southern portion of the lake near the St Joe River. All the trace element enriched sediments are extremely fine grained (mean grain sizes « 63 μm). Most of the enriched trace elements, based on both the chemical analyses of separated heavy and light mineral fractions and a two step sequential extraction procedure, are associated with an operationally defined Fe oxide phase; much smaller percentages are associated either with operationally defined organics/sulphides or refractory phases.

The presence, concentration and distribution of the Fe oxides and heavy minerals indicates that a substantial portion of the enriched trace elements are probably coming from the Coeur d'Alene River, which is serving as a point source. Within the lake, this relatively simple point source pattern is complicated by a combination of (1) the formation of trace element rich authigenic Fe oxides that appear to have reprecipitated from material solubilized from anoxic bed sediments and (2) physical remobilization by currents and wind driven waves. The processes that have caused the trace element enrichment in the surface sediments of Lake Coeur d'Alene are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.