Bwlch Mine Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment is to determine which stimuli sowbugs prefer more, moist or dark. However, to confirm that sowbugs prefer dark and moist environments we had to create an experiment to prove this. We proved sowbugs prefer dark environments by using a lamp to create a light environment and cardboard over half the petri dish to create the dark environment; the sowbugs chose the dark side. Then we proved sowbugs preferred moist environments over dry ones by creating a wet environment on one side and a dry environment on the other side of the petri dish. After our final experiment, we were able to determine that sowbugs prefer the dark stimuli over moist stimuli.

There are many factors that contribute to Idaho’s pollution problem, but mining may be the biggest. Mining is a huge industry in Idaho, hence the nickname “The Gem State”. The biggest product from Idaho’s mines is silver. Silver mines are some of the largest polluters in the state. Bunker Hill, or Silver Valley, as the Coeur d’Alene region is known for its numerous mines, was recently named a Superfund site. A Superfund site is a site under protection for removal of toxic wastes by the EPA. Although that beautiful valley was also once known for its abundant wildlife, now the rivers are flooded with phosphorous, selenium, zinc, lead, silver, cadmium, and arsenic, all from tailings of several mines in the region. Lake Coeur d’Alene now contains over 70 million tons of toxic waste sediments in its bottom. This pollution has endangered people in the area for years. In Smelterville, where a smelter ran for nearly 100 years, a large number of people have been diagnosed with health complications caused by extremely high levels of lead and other toxins in their blood. These conditions, for most, have existed nearly all their lives. Many remember being ill for most of their childhood and on. In 1973, before the smelter was closed, the average lead toxin level per deciliter of blood in children tested was 70. A reading of 10 is considered high alert. Rocky Hill, who grew up in Smelterville and

Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from Geoscience Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.

Upon finishing the experiment it was concluded that the the ability to determine whether or not the ore should be mined was successful. According to the data results it was determined that

Holmes, Garnett, Bureau of Plant Industry United States, and Bureau of Chemistry and Soils United States. Soil Survey of The Yuma Area, Arizona-California. N.p.: Govt. print. off., 1905

The process of mining lead and zinc ore produces mine tailings . The mine tailings are better known as chat. Throughout the years of mining Picher became known for the immense chat piles that surrounded the landscape, an amazing 70 million tons. Unbeknownst to the community of Picher, the chat piles contained hazardous materials. The toxins contained in the chat piles consisted of lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, iron and manganese. The people of Picher, unaware of the toxicity, played and picnicked on these enormous chat piles for years. It did not occur to the people of the area that health and developmental issues were caused from the chat piles until the Health Department tested 100 children of the mining community for lead. Out of the 100 children tested 43% had elevated levels of lead in their blood. The EPA declared Picher a Superfund site in 1983. This leads many people to believe that clean-up of the area is possible; however the actions taken by the EPA fall incredibly

These are soils consisting predominantly of unaltered mineral material that have no surface/sub-surface horizon attributed to soil forming processes (unless buried under a 730cm thick deposit from the Holocene) (Avery, 1980;). These soils do not normally have continuous vegetation cover (Avery, 1980). They occur in very recently formed soil and may have a superficial organic or organo-mineral layer less than 5cm thick. Sometimes they have a buried horizon below 30cm of depth. (Thompson, 2007; Jarvis, 1984).

The waterways can be divided into categories of water that has been affected by the Summitville mine and water that has not been affected. Based on the location of the waterways, the Beaver Mud Dump, the Headwaters of Wightman Fork, Schinzel Flats, Wightman Fork below mine, and the small creek from tailings pile would be directly affected by the contamination initiated by mining activity, while the Cattle Guard, Iron Creek, Alum Creek, Bitter Creek, and waterways around the Alamosa River would not be affected or as affected by the mining activity (refer to Figure 1). From the data collected this year, it can be inferred that the Beaver Mud Dump is by far the most metal-polluted body of water in the area; though the waterways affected by

Deforestation’s accompaniment is erosion. Since much of strip mined land lacks proper restoration, weather causes further loss of soil and vital nutrients needed for native vegetation to grow. “Mountain Top Mining and Valley Fills Report” published by the EPA cites KA Harper and others educated and conducting studies in the fields of biology, environmental studies, and renewable sources. According to Harper, the change in mineral content of land affected by surface mining prohibits growth of indigenous plant life and allows foreign plant life to invade, changing the areas ecosystem (Harper).

It can pose a major impact, especially to younger children. Mining can have an impact and pose a hazard from almost anything. Some of the contaminants that are found at superfund sites are, but not limited to: lead, which presents a major threat to the human health and the environment. Asbestos, which like lead is also present a major threat to human health. Dioxin, which contaminates the soil, soil bioavailability, and radiation.

The samples were removed from exposure after an interval of 25 days , and analysed for colour changes and degradation. 4.1.3.3. Degradation Due To Soil

anthracite, bituminous, decomposition, disintegration, foliated, gneissic banding, grade, lignite, mass wasting, metamorphic rock, metamorphism, parent rock, peat, phyllitic texture, schistosity, slaty cleavage, sub-bituminous, weathering

However, when Pb and As were added to Cd-spiked soil one after another, intestinal bioaccessibility of Cd in KBA and TAA soils increased relative to soils spiked with single Cd at the early stage of aging (data in Table 4.5 marked with *). In contrast, bioaccessibility of As and Pb were not influenced by the presence of Cd. Compared to binary mixtures of As, Cd and Pb, the co-existence of As, Cd and Pb in the same soil sample may lead to competitive sorption on soils due to the increased loading of metals/metalloid. Prior studies have noted that Pb was absorbed in preference to Cd thus increasing the observed solubility of Cd (Serrano et al., 2005; Appel et al., 2008). In this study, this preference was reflected on the observation that bioaccessibility of Pb in four types of soils was stable after 7 days aging, which indicates fast reaction between Pb and soil components. Besides, strong affinity of As to organic carbon, Fe oxide and Al oxide has been extensively reported (Solaiman et al., 2009; Komarek et al., 2013). Therefore, there was a high

Another threat to the environment is acid mine drainage (also known as acid rock drainage). Acid mine drainage is "the outflow of acidic water from a mining site." This acid is formed by the oxidation of iron sulfide. The oxidation occurs when iron sulfide is exposed to the air or to dissolved oxygen in the water, which causes the iron to rust and the sulfur reacts with the water to forum sulfuric acid (Coil, D., McKittrick, E., and Higman, B., 2010). Figure 2 illustrates the sulfuric acid that is formed.

The inorganic metals that often plague brownfields include arsenic, cadmium, zinc, nickel and copper. However, the bioavailability of other problematic metals such as lead and chromium are very low and require more advanced resources and strategies in order to be extracted. In addition to these toxic metals, it has been suggested that phytoextraction techniques can be used to remove radionuclides that exist in sites with mixed wastes. Radionuclide refers to any element that emits radiation and that can cause cancer through drinking water that it contaminates. In addition to the environmental and health concerns that brownfields pose, there are also many sociological impacts associated with them.