EmilyWilliams

ChemicalAnalysisofWhatIonsarePresentintheAnimasRiverWatershed

Abstract:
Themotivationofthisexperimentwastodiscoverwhatpotentiallyharmfulheavymetals
ifanyarepresentintheAnimasRiver.Thisisbeingtestedbecauseoftherecentspillof3
milliongallonsoftoxicwastewaterintoCementCreekfromtheGoldKingMinenearSilverton
Colorado.ThroughoutthisexperimentCalcium(Ca^2+),Chloride(Cl),Iron(Fe^3+),Sulfate
(SO4^2),Copper(Cu^2+),andLead(Pb^+2)weretestedforinsamplesfromtheAnimasRiver,
cementcreek,andMineralcreakindetectableamounts.Totestforthesechemicalsseveral
controlswereneeded.Becausethiswasonlyaqualitativetestandnotaquantitativetestthe
experimentconsistedofapositivecontrol,thenanegativecontrolbeforethewatersampleswere
tested.Thisseriesoftestswasrepeateduntileverysampleofwaterhadbeentestedforevery
chemicalinquestion.Itwasdeterminedthatthechemicalwaspresentifthemixturecreateda
precipitate,aninsolublecompoundthatcollectsasasolidatthebottomofthesolution.Through
thisexperimentitwasdiscoveredthattheAnimasriverhasrelativelyfewdetectableheavy
metalspresent.

Methods:
Inthisexperiment,4differentwatersamplesfromdifferentlocationswereindividually
testedforthepresenceofheavymetals.Thefirststepindoingsowastochooseoneofthefour
watersamplestouseforthetesting.ThefirstchemicalatquestionwasCalcium.Inorderto
ensureaccurateresultsapositiveandanegativecontrolwereconductedusingdistilledwater,
CaCl/2,andNa/2CO/3(SodiumCarbonate).Na/2CO/3willreactwithCaCl/2toforma
precipitateiftheionispresent.Thisisthepositivecontrol,itprovesthatiftheCa^+2atomis
presentinthewatersampleitwillreacttoformaprecipitate.InadditiontothiswhenNa/2CO/3
isaddedtodistilledwatertherewillbenoreaction,thisisthenegativecontrol.Theseare
conductedusingasmalldishwithwells.Intothefirstwell10dropsofCaCl/2areaddedusinga

pipet.Intothesecondwell10dropsofdistilledwaterareadded.Intothethirdwell10dropsof
testwaterareadded.Then3dropsofNa/2CO/3areaddedtoeachindividualwell.Theresults
arerecordedbeforebeginningthenextprocedure.
Thissameprocedureisrepeated5moretimesforeachindividualheavymetalin
question,theamountsoftestsolutionchangingslightlyforeachascanbeseeninTable1.Then
theprocessisrepeated3moretimesfortheotherwatersamples,cleaningoutthewellsin
betweeneachseparateprocedurewithdistilledwater.AftertestingforCl,SO4^2,Cu^2+,and
Pb^+2,thewastemustbedisposedofproperlyintoadesignatedwastecontainer.Intable1
beloweachreferencesolutionusedislistedandwhatitscorrespondingchemicalis.

Table1:
ChemicalatQuestion

TestSolution

AmountofSolutionused

Calcium(Ca^+2)

Na/2CO/3

3dropsperwell

Chloride(Cl)

AgNO3

3dropsperwell

Iron(Fe^3+)

KSCN

1or2dropsperwell

Sulfate(SO4^2)

BaCl2

3dropsperwell

Copper(Cu^2+)

KI

1or2dropsperwell

Lead(Pb^+2)

KI

1or2dropsperwell

Results:
ThroughoutthisexperimentitwasdiscoveredthattherearenodetectablemetalsintheAnimas
RiverbelowSilvertonorintheAnimasRiverinSilverton.ItwasalsodetectedthatIronwas
presentin4/15samplestestedfromCementCreekinSilverton,andCalciumin,Ironin,
Copperin2/8,andLeadinwerepresentinsamplesfromCementCreekbelowthemine
effluence.ItwasdiscernedthatCalciumwaspresentin1/11testsamplesfromMineralCreek,
andLeadandSulfateeachin1/10samplesfromtheSouthForkofCementCreek.Theseresults

canalsobeviewedinTable2shownbelow.Forreferenceintable3onecanseewhereeach
samplewastakenfromandwhatsymbolitisrepresentedbyintable2.

Table2:
Sample

Ca^+2

Cl

Fe^3+

SO4^2

Cu^2+

Pb^+2

A68

0/10

0/10

0/10

0/10

0/10

0/10

A72

0/8

0/8

0/8

0/8

0/8

0/8

CC@14

0/15

0/15

4/15

0/15

0/15

0/15

CCAC

3/8

0/8

3/8

0/8

2/8

1/8

MC

1/11

0/11

0/11

0/11

0/11

0/11

SFCC

0/10

0/10

1/10

1/10

0/10

0/10

Location

Table3:

Symbol

Location

A68

AnimasRiverinSilverton

A72

AnimasRiverSilverton

CC@14

CementCreekinSilverton

CCAC

CementCreekbelowmineaboveconfluence

MC

MineralCreekaboveconfluencewithAnimas

SFCC

SouthForkofCementCreekaboveconfluence

Discussion:

Thepurposeofthisexperimentwastounderstandwhatheavymetalsarepresentinthe
AnimasriveraftertheGoldKingminespill.Thisspillreleased3milliongallonsofacidmine
drainageintotheriverandisstillreleasingsmallamountsofdrainagenow,forthisreasonand
theknowledgethattherearethousandsofotheruncleanedminesaroundSilvertonresultswere
expectedtobepositive.Whenlookingattable2onewillnoticethatthemajorityofresultswere
howevernegative.ThiswasmostsurprisingwhenlookingattheCalciumtests.Overallonly4
samplescameuppositiveforCalciumanditwasexpectedthatmanymorewould.Itwas
determinedthatthiswasbecauseofthelowPhlevelsinthewatersamples.WhenPhlevelsare
lowthewaterismoreacidicandhasmoreHydrogenatomswithinit,theseHydrogenatomsstop
theCalciumatomsfromcombiningwithourtestsolution,SodiumCarbonated.Sohadbasesuch
asammoniabeenaddedtoourwatersamplestoraisethePhbeforetestingforCalciumthere
wouldhavebeenmorepositiveresults.
ApartfromourCalciumtestresultsfromotherchemicalswereunexpectedaswell.This
issignificantbecauseitindicatedthatinfutureexperimentsoneshouldconductmoreteststo
collectquantitativedataaswell.Thetestsconductedinthisexperimentwerelookingfor
qualitativedata,ifthechemicalswereatallpresent,itisstillpossiblethatthesechemicalsare
presentintheriverbutintoosmallofamountstobedetectedinthewaythatthisprocedurewas
testing.Thisalsomeansthatthesechemicalsarenotpresentinamountsthatwouldbepotentially
harmfultohumans,butitwouldstillbevaluabletoknowweathertheyareatallpresentornot.
Toimprovethisexperimentinthefuture,onewouldaddAmmoniatowatersamplesthat
weregoingtobetestedforCalciuminordertoensuretheresultsarenotfalsenegatives.One
wouldalsoneedtoconductqualitativeteststobemorethoroughandruleoutallchanceof
chemicalspresentinthewatergoingunnoted.Overallthisexperimentshowswhatchemicalsare
presentintheriversemireliantly,andhasshownhowtheprocedureneedstobemodifiedto
obtainbetterresultsinthefuture.