Mine tailings reclamation project improves water quality in Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek
Henderson T, Ray A, Penoyer P, Rodman A, Levandowski M, Yoder A, Matolyak S, Marks M, Coleman A. 2018. Mine tailings reclamation project improves water quality in Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek. Park Science. 34(1):9-21
In 2015, National Park Service scientists teamed with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to conduct a comprehensive characterization of water quality in Soda Butte Creek. Soda Butte Creek is a tributary of the Lamar River whose water quality was impaired by historical mining activity near Cooke City, Montana. This investigation followed the reclamation of the McLaren Mill and Tailings site, a long-sought-after objective by Yellowstone National Park, the State of Montana, and local environmental groups. The tailings at the McLaren site had leached metals into Soda Butte Creek for more than 80 years and posed an ongoing threat to Yellowstone National Park. This investigation summarizes metal concentrations from a monitoring location downstream of the former McLaren site before and after the completion of reclamation work. It also provides a summary of a basin-wide water quality inventory completed in 2015 and 2016 and documents benthic sediment chemistry post-reclamation. Results from this investigation indicate significant improvements in water quality in the vicinity of the reclaimed McLaren site and a reduction in the number of water quality exceedances documented at the Yellowstone National Park boundary. Importantly, recent documented water quality exceedances are readily traced to two tributaries located outside the park boundary and not the former mill and tailings site.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Henderson, Tom; Ray, Andrew; Penoyer, Pete; Rodman, Ann; Levandowski, Mary; Yoder, Alysa; Matolyak, Shane; Marks, Mary Beth; Coleman, Autumn
- Units
- YELL
- Keywords
- 303(d) list, abandoned mine lands, metals, mining, Soda Butte Creek, water quality, Yellowstone National Park