Prevention of acid drainage from gold mining in the western United States and impacts on water quality

1990 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 27-41
Author(s):  
M. K. Botz ◽  
Scott E. Mason
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Acid Drainage

Post-fire water-quality response in the western United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley J. Rust ◽  
Terri S. Hogue ◽  
Samuel Saxe ◽  
John McCray
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Stream Water ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Change Point Analysis ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Stream Water Quality ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Water Quality Data ◽  
Quality Response

Wildfires are increasing in size and severity in forested landscapes across the Western United States. Not only do fires alter land surfaces, but they also affect the surface water quality in downstream systems. Previous studies of individual fires have observed an increase in various forms of nutrients, ions, sediments and metals in stream water for different post-fire time periods. In this research, data were compiled for over 24 000 fires across the western United States to evaluate post-fire water-quality response. The database included millions of water-quality data points downstream of these fires, and was synthesised along with geophysical data from each burned watershed. Data from 159 fires in 153 burned watersheds were used to identify common water-quality response during the first 5 years after a fire. Within this large dataset, a subset of seven fires was examined further to identify trends in water-quality response. Change-point analysis was used to identify moments in the post-fire water-quality data where significant shifts in analyte concentrations occurred. Evaluating individual fires revealed strong initial increases or decreases in concentrations, depending on the analyte, that are masked when averaged over 5 years. Evidence from this analysis shows significant increases in nutrient flux (different forms of nitrogen and phosphorus), major-ion flux and metal concentrations are the most common changes in stream water quality within the first 5 years after fire. Dissolved constituents of ions and metals tended to decrease in concentration 5 years after fire whereas particulate matter concentration continued to increase. Assembling this unique and extensive dataset provided the opportunity to determine the most common post-fire water-quality changes in the large and diverse Western USA. Results from this study could inform studies in other parts of the world, will help parameterise and validate post-fire water-quality models, and assist communities affected by wildfire to anticipate changes to their water quality.

Getting ready for climate change implications for the western USA

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 727-733
Author(s):  
P. Standish-Lee ◽  
K. Lecina
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Western United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Water Users

Water users throughout the western United States have faced supply problems from the conception of modern civilization. Today, climate change, population growth, and declining water quality combine with the age-old problem of finding sufficient water resources in a region with a largely arid climate. Climate change in particular poses a significant threat to the sustainability of water supplies in the western United States (the West). Casting aside all debate about who and what is responsible for climate change, the public and water utilities alike must be prepared to address its effects on water supplies.

Papers of Frederick R. Burnham (1861-1947) in the Hoover Institution Archives

1985 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 385-387
Author(s):  
Alistair Tough
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Business Manager ◽  
Mining Engineer ◽  
Northern Territories

Indian fighter, explorer, scout, soldier and hero: during Frederick Burnham's life he filled all of these roles. Consequently a myth grew up around him cultivated by various “real-life adventure story books” in which he featured, and his own autobiography in which he stressed the more adventurous aspects of his life. The adventurous aspects of his career are, indeed, not without significance. For example, it was Burnham who killed the Mlimo during the Ndebele War of 1897 and this action may well have had an important effect on the morale of Ndebele fighters. Nevertheless, Burnham's career as a mineral prospector, mining engineer, and business manager is as significant as his more publicized activities. In some instances the latter were, in fact, a consequence of his employment in the former.Born in the United States, Burnham was brought up in California. He received a limited formal education but in the course of his early working life in the western United States he acquired a knowledge of mining, particularly gold mining. From 1893 to 1897 he was in present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was he who led the Northern Territories (BSA) Exploration Co. expedition which established for the outside world that major copper deposits existed in Central Africa.

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