Trace metals in surface water and stream sediments of Healy and Lignite Creek basins, Alaska

Book · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:7130030

Parks, B

Coal has been strip-mined in the Healy and Lignite Creek basins of the Nenana coal field. Trace metals concentrations were low in Healy Creek, but were higher in the Lignite Creek basin. Concentrations of trace metals increased as Healy Creek and Sanderson Creek flow past mined areas, but effects of coal mining could not be distinguished from those due to a change in lithology or coal outcrop burning. Metals are typically concentrated on the suspended sediment. The source of the trace metals on sediment and in the water is probably the fine-grained Tertiary rock of the coal-bearing group. Local coals do not contain high levels of trace metals. Concentrations of dissolved and suspended trace metals in water and total-recoverable trace metals in the bed material do not present an environmental hazard in the Healy and Lignite Creek basins at this time. Mining does not appear to have had any appreciable effect on the quality of groundwater in the basins. 14 refs., 13 figs., 8 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 7130030
• Resource Relation: Related Information: USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 83-4173
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALASKA
WATER POLLUTION
COAL MINING
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
SEDIMENTS
CONTAMINATION
STREAMS
GROUND WATER
METALS
MONITORING
TRACE AMOUNTS
ELEMENTS
FEDERAL REGION X
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MINING
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
SURFACE WATERS
USA
WATER
010900* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Environmental Aspects
540320 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)