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Tiana Price ENG 2010 Camille Pack Report Final April 16, 2014 Water Conservancy Rockin the Salt Lake Valley In the 21st century it is safe to say that everyone has heard at least one environmental concern, if not more. I chose to do some investigation about water pollution in the Salt Lake valley, and some of the effects it has. There are 2 general types of water pollution, our underground aquifers, and our lakes and streams. There are many reasons people choose to turn a blind eye to overwhelming scenarios such as water pollution. The saying Knowledge is Power holds true. The more we know about the, who, what, why and hows, to correct and prevent, the better off we will all be. I am a firm believer that one person CAN make a difference. If one person can educate 5 people and those five people educate 5, it rapidly expands. I call it the ripple effect. I intend to share with you some research I did in areas of water pollution along the Wasatch Front, and to share a few solutions. The more we teach ourselves, and our kids, the better chance we have of righting our wrongs. The key is to turn bad habits into better ones, and better ones and better, until we evolve into new and wipe out the old ones completely. I dont want to be the reason for the eventual demise of our existence. Do you?

Price 2 According to the Department of Workforce Services the population of Salt Lake was roughly 429,000 fifty years ago. Since then that number has grown approximately 12,000 per year for the following 20 years, and then at a rate of around 16,000 a year. Today it is estimated that the Wasatch front is home to around 2,350,274 people. Thats a lot of needs, a lot of water, and a lot of created pollution. When a natural system gets out of sync it can no longer clean itself. This is where you run into big problems. Whole water bodies can become eutrophic. That is when there are so many versatile nutrients and minerals, that algae and other biota (botanicals) overgrow and choke out everything else, kind of like cancer in the human body. Some pollutants are very difficult and expensive to clean from the water, the Kennecott cleanup cost 100 million, and 20 million of that was government funded, according to Steve Blake of J.V.W.C.D. Kennecott copper is a vast Utah landmark. In the 1960s the Industrial era was in full swing. Kennecott Copper is known today as Bingham Canyon Mine. It runs the mine, a smelter, and a refinery. The large scale method of open pit mining was introduced around 1907and word travelled fast across the globe. Immigrants and miners from all over the world were coming to the valley and staying in makeshift shelters throughout the canyon. The towns of Bingham Canyon, Copperton, and Magna became home to the diverse miners.

Standing about 6,700 feet above sea level at the mine overlook within the Bingham Canyon Mine, you can see, hear, and feel the breathtakingly awesome magnitude of the largest man-made excavation on earth. More than three quarters of a mile deep and 2 1/2 miles wide, this mine, is just one of the two man-made objects on earth that can be seen by astronauts from outer space. The other is the Great Wall of China.

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Mining is the extraction of minerals along with other valuable ores and elements from the earth. The nature of mining processes creates a potential negative impact on the environment both during the mining operations, and for years to come. In the 1920s, early miners at Bingham Canyon began applying water to waste rock piles to dissolve, or leach, the low grades of copper in the waste rock. These waste products that were made were going to need somewhere to be discarded. Unlined reservoirs used from 1963 to 1996 to store mine waters were called barren leach waters or tunnel drainage, and even through storm water it leaked approximately 1 million gallons a day into the surrounding soils eventually making it into the valleys underground aquifers. An aquifer (Websters Dictionary definition) is: any geological formation containing or conducting ground water, especially one that supplies the water for wells, springs, etc.

This causes several problems that are very expensive to fix. One is salinization; the buildup of salts near the surface that makes it so that surface water evaporates rapidly. This causes the soil moisture, together with its dissolved salts, to come to the surface by capillary action. This water then evaporates, leaving behind a crust of salts on the surface.(I learned this in Biology) This process occurs naturally in desert soils, but the incorrect use of irrigation in arid lands can cause serious problems. When non-saline soil becomes salinized it destroys the soil and its fertility it then becomes toxic. Selenium is a naturally occurring trace element that can concentrate in water. In small amounts, it is good for bird health but can be toxic in large doses. And dont forget the problematic acid and metal filled drainage, also called acid rock drainage. Acid rock drainage is defined as; the outflow of acidic water from metals in mines.

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In 1986 a company named The District which later changed its name to Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District filed a law suit against Kennecott. They had been delivering quality water to the Wasatch front for 50 years. The suit filed was a Natural Resource Damage Claim for groundwater damage in the southwest Jordan Valley area. They reached a settlement agreement regarding compensation to the State for the groundwater contamination, and funding to correct it in 1990.

Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District did not agree with the 1990 decision and appealed it up to federal court 1990-1991. Finally in 1995 they came to an agreement with Kennecott and the state of Utah called The 1995 Natural Resource Damage Consent Decree. It required compensation in cash and a letter of credit for $36 million from Kennecott. In addition they were required to complete a study required by the Federal Superfund program. Complete the installation and operate of extraction wells in the acidic core of what is called the Zone A plume, and equip it to extract a minimum of 400 acre-feet per year to begin to contain the plume, and to complete the construction of additional source control measures described as the eastside collection system and the Bingham Canyon cut-off wall system. The leach system was upgraded and expanded over the years. There are 2 plumes, referred to as zone A, and zone B. Kennecott operates the treatment of zone A, while Jordan Valley operates the treatment of zone B.

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In 1999 Jordan Valley Water and Kennecott came up with a Joint Proposal that was a great benefit to all involved. It proposed they keep the contamination plumes from expanding, and then shrink them. They were responsible to remove contamination from the aquifer, and produce over 8000 gallons of treated water for municipal use as a way for them to help clean up contaminated groundwater. The objectives of the proposal were that they would build and operate deep underground wells and reverse osmosis treatment plants .In 2000, they stopped the application of water on the waste rock. However, rain and snowmelt continue to infiltrate the waste rock. A series of 29 acid-resistant concrete walls have been placed in the drainages below the waste rock distributions on the east and south side of the pit. In 2006 they completed an onsite water treatment plant.

In 2005 plans began rolling out for the South West Groundwater Project (J.V.W.C.D location). It is the largest inland treatment plant of this sort in the United States. It just opened in 2013, and with Kennecott no longer producing the contaminates in question, according to Twila Brantley (J.V.W.C.D), it should theoretically be clean in 40 years. There were 50 square miles effected by Kennecott. I visited the plant and was very impressed with the science and systematics that were involved. Reverse osmosis is when you take pressure to push the water through a permeable membrane (like filters) and it leaves the salts and contaminants behind. The water goes through these filters and Ph is tested along with drinking water level standards before it is pumped on. They also use UV radiation, similar to the rays from the sun. 180 million gallons of water are treated a day through reverse osmosis,7 million alone at the Southwest Groundwater Treatment Plant.

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I wondered what they did with the contaminate they pulled from the filters, and all that salt? The zone A, and zone B both have pipelines that pump the high saline solutions out to the Great Salt Lake. The other goes to a facility of Kennecotts called the tailings impoundment located in Magna. The by-product from this project will have a salt concentration higher than drinking water or irrigation water; the total dissolved solids or salt concentration will be less than ocean water and Great Salt Lake water. The by-product water will not contain any hazardous concentrations or disturb the natural eco system at the Great Salt Lake.

As we move forward into the future, and our population continues to grow, we will see the need grow as well. It is up to us to learn, care, and speak out. If we learn these fun sciences, and the behind the scenes technologies, not only do we create a better environment, but jobs of the future. We need to care enough to find and support realistic solutions to the byproducts and waste we as human beings create. Make your opinions and voices heard. Problems are solved only after conversations occur.

WORKS CITED Ray Stokes.Twila Brantley.Marie Owens.Steve Blake.Mike Axleguard Personal Interview Monday Febuary 3,2014. Natural Resource Damage.www.deq.utah.gov/business/kennecott/nrd/index.htm.NRD.2013.Web Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council.www.itrcweb.org/publictreatment.ITRC.2011.Web Environmental Literacy Council.www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1179.html.ELC.2004.Web Chad Neilsen.Vanguard Media Group.eds.FIVE DECADES:A History of Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District.Salt Lake City Utah.2006.Print