When a tailings pond drain broke in 2015, the abandoned “Gold King Mine” in Colorado leached three million gallons of wastewater and tailings into the Animas River. The contaminants reached downstream as far as the Colorado River in New Mexico. The Frank Church Wilderness, in Idaho (USA), is the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states, yet there are hundreds of abandoned mines lining the pristine banks of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. A spill like the Animas River spill in Frank Church would devastate one of the last truly wild places in the United States. In order to evaluate this potential, we conducted a preliminary test of high-risk tributaries to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. The National Forest Service collected water samples by kayak in this highly inaccessible area. Samples were analyzed by ICP-MS for heavy metals Cu, Hg, Cr, Co, Ni, Ba, Cd, Ag, and Pb, that are common in mine tailings. We then compared concentrations in the main channel to those in the tributaries, while accounting for underlying geology, in hope of determining which mines are leaking heavy metals in the Frank Church Wilderness Area.

Abandoned heavy metal mine releases to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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