TY - JOUR
T1 - Origin and Fate of Vanadium in the Hazeltine Creek Catchment following the 2014 Mount Polley Mine Tailings Spill in British Columbia, Canada
AU - Hudson-Edwards, Karen A.
AU - Byrne, Patrick
AU - Bird, Graham
AU - Brewer, Paul
AU - Burke, Ian
AU - Jamieson, Heather
AU - Macklin, Mark
AU - Williams, Richard
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Lyn Anglin, Colleen Hughes, Art Frye, and Shauna Litke of Mount Polley Mining Corp. for providing site information and data and for field support and access. The authors extend our special thanks to Lyn Anglin for reviewing an early version of the manuscript. The authors also acknowledge Phil Riby, Andy Beard, Agatha Dobosz, and Patrizia Onnis for technical support. The authors thank Diamond Light Source for access to beamline I18 (Proposal SP15046) and Konstantin Ignatyev (Station Scientist, Diamond Light Source Ltd.) for support that contributed to the results presented here. The authors are also grateful to the three anonymous reviewers and Associate Editor Daniel Giammar whose comments significantly improved the manuscript. This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/M017486/1). The data used to prepare this paper are available in the manuscript and SI, and from NERC’s Environmental Information Data Centre.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2019/4/16
Y1 - 2019/4/16
N2 - Results from the analysis of aqueous and solid-phase V speciation within samples collected from the Hazeltine Creek catchment affected by the August 2014 Mount Polley mine tailings dam failure in British Columbia, Canada, are presented. Electron microprobe and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis found that V is present as V
3+ substituted into magnetite and V
3+ and V
4+ substituted into titanite, both of which occur in the spilled Mount Polley tailings. Secondary Fe oxyhydroxides forming in inflow waters and on creek beds have V K-edge XANES spectra exhibiting E1/2 positions and pre-edge features consistent with the presence of V
5+ species, suggesting sorption of this species on these secondary phases. PHREEQC modeling suggests that the stream waters mostly contain V
5+ and the inflow and pore waters contain a mixture of V
3+ and V
5+. These data, and stream, inflow, and pore water chemical data, suggest that dissolution of V(III)-bearing magnetite, V(III)- and V(IV)-bearing titanite, V(V)-bearing Fe(-Al-Si-Mn) oxhydroxides, and V-bearing Al(OH)
3 and/or clay minerals may have occurred. In the circumneutral pH environment of Hazeltine Creek, elevated V concentrations are likely naturally attenuated by formation of V(V)-bearing secondary Fe oxyhydroxide, Al(OH)
3, or clay mineral colloids, suggesting that the V is not bioavailable. A conceptual model describing the origin and fate of V in Hazeltine Creek that is applicable to other river systems is presented.
AB - Results from the analysis of aqueous and solid-phase V speciation within samples collected from the Hazeltine Creek catchment affected by the August 2014 Mount Polley mine tailings dam failure in British Columbia, Canada, are presented. Electron microprobe and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis found that V is present as V
3+ substituted into magnetite and V
3+ and V
4+ substituted into titanite, both of which occur in the spilled Mount Polley tailings. Secondary Fe oxyhydroxides forming in inflow waters and on creek beds have V K-edge XANES spectra exhibiting E1/2 positions and pre-edge features consistent with the presence of V
5+ species, suggesting sorption of this species on these secondary phases. PHREEQC modeling suggests that the stream waters mostly contain V
5+ and the inflow and pore waters contain a mixture of V
3+ and V
5+. These data, and stream, inflow, and pore water chemical data, suggest that dissolution of V(III)-bearing magnetite, V(III)- and V(IV)-bearing titanite, V(V)-bearing Fe(-Al-Si-Mn) oxhydroxides, and V-bearing Al(OH)
3 and/or clay minerals may have occurred. In the circumneutral pH environment of Hazeltine Creek, elevated V concentrations are likely naturally attenuated by formation of V(V)-bearing secondary Fe oxyhydroxide, Al(OH)
3, or clay mineral colloids, suggesting that the V is not bioavailable. A conceptual model describing the origin and fate of V in Hazeltine Creek that is applicable to other river systems is presented.
KW - Vanadium
KW - Mount Polley
KW - tailings
KW - magnetite
KW - titanity
KW - XANES
KW - Water Pollutants, Chemical
KW - British Columbia
KW - Minerals
KW - Rivers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064345619&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.8b06391
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.8b06391
M3 - Article
C2 - 30829475
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 53
SP - 4088
EP - 4098
JO - Environmental Science & Technology
JF - Environmental Science & Technology
IS - 8
ER -