Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:50:51.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of a small-scale, abandoned gold mine on the geochemistry of fine stream-bed and floodplain sediments in the Horsefly River watershed, British Columbia, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Deirdre E. Clark ,
Marjolein F. A. Vogels ,
Marcel Van Der Perk ,
Philip N. Owens  and
Ellen L. Petticrew
Deirdre E. Clark*
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508, TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Marjolein F. A. Vogels
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508, TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Marcel Van Der Perk
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80115, 3508, TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Philip N. Owens
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Program and Quesnel River Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada
Ellen L. Petticrew
Affiliation:
Geography Program and Quesnel River Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Mining is known to be a major source of metal contamination for fluvial systems worldwide. Monitoring and understanding the effects on downstream water and sediment quality is essential for its management and to mitigate against detrimental environmental impacts. This study aimed to examine the effects of the small-scale, abandoned, hydraulic Black Creek gold mine on the geochemical content of fine (<63 μm) stream bed and floodplain sediment in the Horsefly watershed (British Columbia, Canada), which is a part of the Quesnel River basin. Concentrations of As, Cd, Se and Zn were determined by aqua regia digestion and the modified BCR (European Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction procedure followed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy or inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Age-depth models for the floodplain cores were constructed using excess Pb-210 and Cs-137 activity concentration profiles. The results show that the mine caused local As contamination of the Horsefly River floodplain sediment during the first years of operation, but at present the contamination is mainly contained in the Black Creek. Present-day and recent concentrations of Cd, Se and Zn in the Horsefly River are elevated and this is probably derived from other upstream mining activities. The spatial and temporal changes in heavymetal concentrations suggest a slight, but not particularly widespread, mining effect on the finesediment geochemistry in the Horsefly River system.

Keywords

gold minesediment geochemistrypollutionenvironmentBritish ColumbiaCanada
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 78 , Issue 6 , November 2014 , pp. 1491 - 1504
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© [2014] The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014

References

Albers, S.J. and Petticrew, E.L. (2012) Ecosystem response to a salmon disturbance regime: Implications for downstream nutrient fluxes in aquatic systems. Limnology & Oceanography, 57, 113–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appleby, P.G. and Oldfield, F. (1983) The assessment of 210Pb data from sites with varying sediment accumulation rates. Hydrobiologica, 103), 29–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D.G. (1990) Geology of the central Quesnel Belt, British Columbia. BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Bulletin 97, Map 1, 1:100,000, Victoria, Canada.Google Scholar
BC Geological Survey (2014) MINFILE Mineral Inventory. BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. http://minfile.gov.bc.ca. Google Scholar
BC Heritage Rivers Program (2014) Horsefly River. BC Ministry of Environment, www.env.gov.bc.ca. Google Scholar
BC Ministry of Environment (2014) Companion Document to: Ambient Water Quality Guidelines for Selenium Update. BC Ministry of Environment, Water Protection and Sustainability Branch. Victoria, Canada.Google Scholar
Binford, M.W., Kahl, J.S. and Norton, S.A. (1993) Interpretation of 210Pb profiles and verification of the CRS model in PIRLA project lake sediment cores. Journal of Paleolimnology, 9, 275–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, C.E. (2002) World Energy Resources. Springer, H.i.elberg, Germany.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, P., Reid, I. and Wood, P.J. (2010) Sediment geochemistry of streams draining abandoned lead/ zinc mines in central Wales: the Afon Twymyn. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 10, 683–697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cade, B.S. and Noon, B.R. (2003) A gentle introduction to quantile regression for ecologists. Ecological Environment, 1, 412–420.Google Scholar
CCME (1999) Canadian sediment quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life: Summary tables. In: Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines, 1999. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Winnipeg, Canada.Google Scholar
Cohen, A.S. (2003) Paleolimnology: The History and Evolution of Lake Systems. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DIN ISO 11466 (1997) German standard procedure: Soil quality – extraction of trace elements soluble in aqua regia. Beuth Verlag GmbH: Berlin, G.r.any. Drever, J.I. (1997) The Geochemistry of Natural Waters: Surface and Groundwater Environments. 3rd edition. Prentice Hall, S.d.le River, N.w.Jersey, USA.Google Scholar
Du Laing, G., Vanthuyne, D.R.J., Vandecasteele, B., Tack, F.M.G. and Verloo, M.G. (2007) Influence of hydrological regime on pore water metal concentrations in a contaminated sediment-derived soil. Environmental Pollution, 147, 615–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Laing, G., Rinklebe, J., Vandecasteele, B., Meers, E. and Tack, F.M.G. (2009) Trace metal behaviour in estuarine and riverine floodplain soils and sediments: a review. Science of the Total Environment, 407, 3972–3985.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Environment Canada (2014) Water. Government of Canada, w.w.ec.gc.ca. Environment Canada and Ministry of Environment, L.n.s and Parks. (1993) State of the environment report for British Columbia. Victoria, Canada.Google Scholar
Gilbert, R. and Desloges, J.R. (2012) Late glacial and Holocene sedimentary environments of Quesnel Lake, British Columbia.. Geomorphology, 179, 186–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, M. (1994) Handbook of Exploration and Environmental Geochemistry. Elsevier Science BV, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Hass, A. and Fine, P. (2010) Sequential selective extraction procedures for the study of heavy metals in soils, sediments, and waste materials – a critical review.. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 40, 365–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, A.J. (1985) A Primer on Trace Metal– Sediment Chemistry. Lewis, Chelsea, Michigan, USA.Google Scholar
Horsefly Historical Society (1981) The Early History of a Cariboo Goldrush Community. www.harperscamp. ca.Google Scholar
Karimlou, G. (2011) Effects of mining on fine sediment quality: a comparison with regional metal background concentrations. MSc. thesis, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/207349.Google Scholar
Lambert, C.P. and Walling, D.E. (1988) Measurement of channel storage of suspended sediment in a gravelbed river. Catena, 15, 65–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lett, R., Nakeinishi, T., Desjardins, P., Man, E. and Mihalynuk, M. (2008) British Columbia Drainage Geochemical Atlas. BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, GeoFile, GeoFile 2008-1:2008.Google Scholar
Lin, C., Tong, X., Lu, W., Yan, L., Wu, Y., Nie, C., Chu, C. and Long, J. (2005) Environmental impacts of surface mining on mined lands, affected streams and agricultural lands in the Dabaoshan mine region, southern China.. Land Degradation and Development, 16, 463–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loring, D.H. (1991) Normalization of heavy-metal data from estuarine and coastal sediments. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 1, 101–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luoma, S.N. and Rainbow, P.S. (2008) Metal Contamination in Aquatic Environments: Science and Lateral Management. Cambridge University Press, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Mabit, L., Benmansour, M., Abril, J.M., Walling, D.E., Meusburger, K., Iurian, A.R., Bernard, C., Tarjan, S., Owens, P.N., Blake, W.H. and Alewell, C. (2014) Excess lead-210 as a soil and sediment tracer in catchment sediment budget investigations: a review. Earth-Science Reviews, 138, 35–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J.R. and Orbock Miller, S.M. (2007) Contaminated Rivers: a Geomorphological- Geochemical Approach to Site Assessment and Remediation. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morel, F. (1983) Principles of Aquatic Geochemistry. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.Google Scholar
Panteleyev, A. and Hancock, K.D. (1988) Quesnel Mineral Belt: Summary of the Geology of the Beaver Creek – Horsefly River Map Area. BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, Geological Fieldwork, 156–166.Google Scholar
Rauret, G., Lopez-Sanchez, J.F., Sahuquillo, A., Rubio, R., Davidson, C., Ure, A. and Quesvauviller, P.. (1999) Improvement of the BCR three step sequential extraction procedure prior to the certification of new sediment and soil reference materials. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 1, 57–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, T.A. and Owens, P.N. (2014) Individual and cumulative effects of agriculture, forestry and metal mining activities on the metal and phosphorus content of fine-grained sediment; Quesnel River basin, British Columbia, Canada.. The Science of the Total Environment, 496, 435–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Surveys and Mapping Branch (1976) Prince George – Dawson Creek. Canada Department of Mines, Energy and Resources,, N.T.S. No. 93 N.E., 1:500,000. Ottawa, Canada.Google Scholar
US EPA (2007) Method 3051a: Microwave assisted acid digestion of sediments, sludges, soils, and oils.. US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
van der Perk, M. (2013) Soil and Water Contamination, 2nd edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.Google Scholar
van Lipzig, M.L.H.M. (2011) Effects of mining on the geochemistry of fine sediments in streams: a study in the Quesnel River catchment. MSc thesis, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. http://dspace.library.nl/handle/1874/217188. Google Scholar