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ENLARGE
SMS students carefully fill bottles with samples of Snake River water to test for levels of zinc.
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ENLARGE
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A polluted sump in front of one of the old buildings at the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine shows the typical discoloration from acid mine drainage.
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ENLARGE
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Under the watchful eye of a Keystone Science School staffer, a group of students from Summit Middle School use nets to scour the polluted Snake River for signs of life.
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KEYSTONE — Just a week after a team of federal scientists conducted in-depth water-quality studies around the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine on Peru Creek, local students also learned about water issues in the Snake River Basin.
Helped by teachers, parents and staffers from the Keystone Science School, about 100 students from Summit Middle School set up research stations last Friday around Keystone at four different sites to measure dissolved oxygen and zinc levels, look for aquatic insects and take other measurements.
“It's cold,” said sixth-grader Justine Lorch, after pulling on a set of waders and braving the slippery rocks to measure the width and depth of the Snake River. While she plunged a yardstick into the icy stream, some students sketched the scene in their notebooks, trying to keep their charts and papers dry under drizzly skies.
To measure the speed of the river's flow, the students marked off a 50-foot section with red flags, then dropped apples into the water and used a stopwatch to time how long it took — about eight seconds — for the fruit to float downstream.
During the next few weeks, the students will analyze the data in the classroom and put together a report of their findings, said science teacher Brian Richardson.
Along with a hands-on lesson in scientific research methods, the students found out that there just isn't much life in the Snake River around Keystone. The students who were looking for bugs came up empty handed. Seeping from the abandoned mine upstream, concentrations of zinc and other metals exceed state and federal limits, in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Several years ago, researcher Andrew Todd placed cages with live fish in the river near the spot where the students worked last week. Most of them died within just a few days. Keystone Resort stocks the water with fish during the summer, but the river is too polluted to support a self-sustaining population.
The pollution worsened a few years ago when an intense summer rainstorm sent levels of metals spiking well above historic levels. The readings stayed in the higher range for months afterward, forcing experts to re-evaluate potential treatment scenarios.
The Pennsylvania Mine has been fingered as one of the main sources of pollution, but smaller mines in the basin, as well high levels of natural minerals, also contribute to the problem.
The long-range goal is improve water quality in the Snake River to a level that could sustain a natural fishery, said Jean Mackenzie, an EPA researcher who has led recent federal cleanup efforts. Years ago, state environmental experts and local volunteers teamed up to try and treat the water with some man-made wetlands and a passive treatment system, but the scale of the problem overwhelmed those efforts.
In a similar situation, local, state and federal agencies collaborated to build a multi-million dollar water treatment plant in French Gulch, near Breckenridge, to treat pollution from the Wellington-Oro Mine.
The current focus is on trying to pinpoint exactly how the polluted water flows through the Pennsylvania Mine and from other polluted drainages in the area. Some of the most polluted water could be diverted away from Peru Creek, experts said. Another option is to move some of the waste rock from the mine away from the water to reduce the amount of pollution reaching the stream.
Last year, the EPA suggested that a Superfund listing could speed the cleanup by focusing financial resources on the area, but local officials were cool to the idea, concerned about the potential stigma associated with a Superfund listing.
Helped by teachers, parents and staffers from the Keystone Science School, about 100 students from Summit Middle School set up research stations last Friday around Keystone at four different sites to measure dissolved oxygen and zinc levels, look for aquatic insects and take other measurements.
“It's cold,” said sixth-grader Justine Lorch, after pulling on a set of waders and braving the slippery rocks to measure the width and depth of the Snake River. While she plunged a yardstick into the icy stream, some students sketched the scene in their notebooks, trying to keep their charts and papers dry under drizzly skies.
To measure the speed of the river's flow, the students marked off a 50-foot section with red flags, then dropped apples into the water and used a stopwatch to time how long it took — about eight seconds — for the fruit to float downstream.
During the next few weeks, the students will analyze the data in the classroom and put together a report of their findings, said science teacher Brian Richardson.
Along with a hands-on lesson in scientific research methods, the students found out that there just isn't much life in the Snake River around Keystone. The students who were looking for bugs came up empty handed. Seeping from the abandoned mine upstream, concentrations of zinc and other metals exceed state and federal limits, in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Several years ago, researcher Andrew Todd placed cages with live fish in the river near the spot where the students worked last week. Most of them died within just a few days. Keystone Resort stocks the water with fish during the summer, but the river is too polluted to support a self-sustaining population.
The pollution worsened a few years ago when an intense summer rainstorm sent levels of metals spiking well above historic levels. The readings stayed in the higher range for months afterward, forcing experts to re-evaluate potential treatment scenarios.
The Pennsylvania Mine has been fingered as one of the main sources of pollution, but smaller mines in the basin, as well high levels of natural minerals, also contribute to the problem.
The long-range goal is improve water quality in the Snake River to a level that could sustain a natural fishery, said Jean Mackenzie, an EPA researcher who has led recent federal cleanup efforts. Years ago, state environmental experts and local volunteers teamed up to try and treat the water with some man-made wetlands and a passive treatment system, but the scale of the problem overwhelmed those efforts.
In a similar situation, local, state and federal agencies collaborated to build a multi-million dollar water treatment plant in French Gulch, near Breckenridge, to treat pollution from the Wellington-Oro Mine.
The current focus is on trying to pinpoint exactly how the polluted water flows through the Pennsylvania Mine and from other polluted drainages in the area. Some of the most polluted water could be diverted away from Peru Creek, experts said. Another option is to move some of the waste rock from the mine away from the water to reduce the amount of pollution reaching the stream.
Last year, the EPA suggested that a Superfund listing could speed the cleanup by focusing financial resources on the area, but local officials were cool to the idea, concerned about the potential stigma associated with a Superfund listing.
