Acid mine drainage on public and private lands, the Walker Mine experience, Plumas County, California
- California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Sacramento, CA (United States)
A widespread environmental problem associated with abandoned mines and their tailings is acid mine drainage (AMD). AMID typically has low pH and elevated metal concentrations that are toxic to aquatic life. In Northern California, Iron Mountain and other mines in the Shasta mining districts are the largest sources of AMD. Additional sources lie to the south along a discontinuous belt of copper and zinc mineralization in the western Sierra foothills. Between these areas lies a remote group of copper mines in northeastern Plumas County including the Walker, Engels and Superior mines. Of this group, AMD from Walker Mine has caused the most severe water quality impairment. This paper describes the history and environmental setting of Walker Mine and the approaches used by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, a state regulatory agency, to improve water quality at the site. Both the mine and its tailings contribute pollutants to the watershed. The mine has a portal discharge with depressed pH and high copper concentrations. The tailings add fine grained sediment to the creek and generate low but significant concentrations of dissolved copper. The mine is on private property and the tailings are on land managed by the U. S. Forest Service. Because of these differences in pollution problems and ownership, the methods employed by the Regional Board to improve conditions at the mine and tailings have been on different, but parallel tracks. Monitoring shows these efforts have significantly improved water quality in the watershed over the last 10 years.
- OSTI ID:
- 381485
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960477-; TRN: 96:004278-0019
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. annual symposium on the application of geophysics to engineering and environmental problems, Denver, CO (United States), 15 Apr - 1 May 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of SAGEEP `96: Proceedings of the symposium on the application of geophysics to engineering and environmental problems; Bell, R.S.; Cramer, M.H. [comps.]; PB: 1353 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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