Source and Fate of Inorganic Soil Contamination Around the Abandoned Phillips Sulfide Mine, Hudson Highlands, New York

The abandoned Phillips sulfide mine in the critical Highlands watershed in New York has been shown to produce strongly acidic mine drainage (AMD) with anomalous metal contaminants in first-order streams that exceeded local water standards by up to several orders of magnitude (Gilchrist et al., 2009)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soil & sediment contamination 2011-01, Vol.20 (1), p.54-74
Main Authors: Gilchrist, Sivajini, Gates, Alexander, Elzinga, Evert, Gorring, Matthew, Szabo, Zoltan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abandoned mines
ACID MINE DRAINAGE
chromium
COATINGS
cobalt
Contaminants
CONTAMINATION
copper
Correlation
Correlation analysis
DISSOLUTION
drainage
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
FLUCTUATIONS
Geochemistry
GOETHITE
highlands
iron
jarosite
lead
Manganese
metal contamination
METALS
mine tailings
MINERAL WASTES
MINES
NEW YORK
nickel
ORGANIC MATTER
OXIDES
polluted soils
Soil (material)
SOIL CHEMISTRY
Soil contamination
soil pollution
soil sampling
SOILS
STREAMS
SULFIDES
SUSPENSIONS
TAILINGS
wastes
WATER
WATERSHEDS
μ-SXRF
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Description
Summary:The abandoned Phillips sulfide mine in the critical Highlands watershed in New York has been shown to produce strongly acidic mine drainage (AMD) with anomalous metal contaminants in first-order streams that exceeded local water standards by up to several orders of magnitude (Gilchrist et al., 2009). The metal-sulfide-rich tailings also produce contaminated soils with pH < 4, organic matter < 2.5% and trace metals sequestered in soil oxides. A geochemical transect to test worst-case soil contamination showed that Cr, Co and Ni correlated positively with Mn, (r = 0.72, r = 0.89, r = 0.80, respectively), suggesting Mn-oxide sequestration and that Cu and Pb correlated with Fe (r = 0.76, r = 0.83, respectively), suggesting sequestration in goethite. Ubiquitous, yellow coating on the mine wastes, including jarosite and goethite, is a carrier of the metals. Geochemical and μ-SXRF analyses determined Cu to be the major soil contaminant. μ-SXRF also demonstrated that the heterogeneous nature of the soil chemistry at the micro-meter scale is self-similar to those in the bulk soil samples. Generally metals decreased, with some fluctuations, rapidly downslope through suspension of fines and dissolution in AMD leaving the area of substantial contamination
ISSN:1549-7887
1532-0383
1549-7887
DOI:10.1080/15320383.2011.528712