Juan changoluisa
Chemical and Biological Impacts of Increased Treated Mining Discharge on a Restored Ecosystem
In October 2019, as part of the Superfund restoration process, treated water from the Berkeley Pit began to be discharged into the Upper Clark Fork River and Silver Bow and Blacktail creeks. Releasing treated water into a restored ecosystem creates a unique experimental environment. An increased conductivity, caused by the addition of treated water with more calcium and sulfate, may change the chemical speciation in the stream, which affects the bioavailability of key nutrients. This research will employ a new modeling interface called the WORM Portal, created by the Group Exploring Organic Processes in Geochemistry (GEOPIG), to understand the changes taking place. Speciation will be calculated for four time points, before and after the discharge began (October 31, 2019), at four locations on the Upper Clark Fork (UCF), Silver Bow, and Blacktail Creeks. Results will show the chemical species present on the stream and how these have changed since the discharge began in 2019.
Juan Changoluisa is an MSc. Student in the Geochemistry at Montana Technological University. His current research interests lie in water quality, contamination and treatment. He is also fascinated by new remote sensing and satellite techniques to obtain water chemistry data from areas of difficult access.