Today is United Nations World Water Day! The theme is demonstrating what water means to us. Water is life for all creatures and more powerful than rocks as can be seen by erosion. Water can cause life-threatening floods as is currently happening in Australia. Water connects all of us and the search for life on Mars involves looking for evidence of water that existed in the past.
I took this photo last October in Cottonwood Wash of southeastern Utah. My son found running and splashing in the stream to be thrilling so he got very muddy! The man shown in the photo works for the U.S. Geological Survey Utah Water Science Center. He is measuring the discharge of stream flow of the Wash using a weir in cubic feet per second. Others in our group measured field parameters of water quality - like pH and specific conductivity which is a measure of total dissolved solids. Collecting samples for laboratory analyses can be expensive. More photos from our trip are shown in the gallery.
Numerous abandoned uranium mines were constructed underground in the area over 50 years ago and large dumps of waste rock left at the surface are eroding into Cottonwood Wash. Mining took place on federal land managed by the US Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service. The Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management, my former employer, is responsible for these mines under the Defense Related Uranium Mines program. Sediments and water can contain arsenic, uranium and other contaminants. Cottonwood Wash flows onto land owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Tribal practice includes collecting water for drinking and ceremonies. The water flows to the San Juan River which joins the Colorado River on its way to the border into Mexico. The environmental officer from the tribe led our field trip. Our group wants to help support the tribe but currently we have no funding to do this work!
For the past year we have been seeking funding from EPA. However, it appears they are looking only to provide funding to projects that will move contaminated rock. Ironically, with the flooded underground mines and water discharging along the stream, just moving the waste rock will not solve the problem to clean up Cottonwood Wash. We dug beneath the surface of the stream to find black sediments indicative of bacteria reducing the uranium and depositing it in the stream. Environmental conditions change seasonally so contaminants can continue to pollute the water and biodiversity. Scientific field investigations are needed to understand controls on uranium mobility that will enable better planning for remediation and stream rehabilitation. Check out my video presentation to a conference on this topic. Drinking water contaminated with arsenic can cause skin cancer and uranium affects the kidneys. Not great for people or critters.
Please let us know if you are interested in learning more about this important project or other water projects in your area.