Copper-rich “Halo” off Lake Superior’s Keweenaw Peninsula and how Mass Mill tailings dispersed onto tribal lands

Kerfoot, W. Charles; Urban, Noel R.; Jeong, Jaebong; MacLennan, Carol; Ford, Sophia

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2020.07.004

Cited by 10 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Along the Keweenaw Peninsula shoreline of Lake Superior, large mill discharges started nearly contemporaneously at numerous locations [6,7]. The spatial details of tailings dispersal, however, are also related to grain size [52]. The coarse fraction, the so-called 'stamp sands', remained close to, or migrated along, extensive stretches of the shoreline and beach environment.…”

Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stamp sands from that mill have also migrated ca. 10 km southward to Sand Point, north of Baraga [4,52]. Along the western coastline of the Keweenaw Peninsula, five additional large mills were located in a cluster near the towns of Freda and Redridge.…”

Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence for the fine fraction exiting Grand (Big) Traverse Bay is also found in deeper sediments beyond the outer bay, where surface Cu concentrations off Little Traverse Bay, immediately south of Grand (Big) Traverse Bay, can locally exceed 400 µg/g (personal communication, Varsha Raman, Ms thesis). Sediment cores from fine-grained deep-water sediments of Keweenaw Bay document the long-term history of metal or stamp sand deposition, allowing calculation of historic sediment and Cu fluxes [4,46,52]. Entombed microfossil remains can also indicate impacts upon biota, especially in protected embayments where deposition is higher and more continuous [46,55].…”

Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior data on the project can be found at the MDNR website "Saving Buffalo Reef" (MTU technical details), and in publications (Refs. [11][12][13][14][15]52,68]). The USACE/EPA GLNPO Report (Ref.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Coastal Remote Sensing: Merging Physical, Chemical, and Biological Data as Tailings Drift onto Buffalo Reef, Lake Superior

et al. 2021

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On the Keweenaw Peninsula of Lake Superior, two stamp mills (Mohawk and Wolverine) discharged 22.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of tailings (1901–1932) into the coastal zone off the town of Gay. Migrating along the shoreline, ca. 10 MMT of the tailings dammed stream and river outlets, encroached upon wetlands, and contaminated recreational beaches. A nearly equal amount of tailings moved across bay benthic environments into critical commercial fish spawning and rearing grounds. In the middle of the bay, Buffalo Reef is important for commercial and recreational lake trout and lake whitefish production (ca. 32% of the commercial catch in Keweenaw Bay, 22% along southern Lake Superior). Aerial photographs (1938–2016) and five LiDAR and multispectral over-flights (2008–2016) emphasize: (1) the enormous amounts of tailings moving along the beach; and (2) the bathymetric complexities of an equal amount migrating underwater across the shelf. However, remote sensing studies encounter numerous specific challenges in coastal environments. Here, we utilize a combination of elevation data (LiDAR digital elevation/bathymetry models) and in situ studies to generate a series of physical, chemical, and biological geospatial maps. The maps are designed to help assess the impacts of historical mining on Buffalo Reef. Underwater, sand mixtures have complicated multispectral bottom reflectance substrate classifications. An alternative approach, in situ simple particle classification, keying off distinct sand end members: (1) allows calculation of tailings (stamp sand) percentages; (2) aids indirect and direct assays of copper concentrations; and (3) permits determinations of density effects on benthic macro-invertebrates. The geospatial mapping shows how tailings are moving onto Buffalo Reef, the copper concentrations associated with the tailings, and how both strongly influence the density of benthic communities, providing an excellent example for the International Maritime Organization on how mining may influence coastal reefs. We demonstrate that when large amounts of mine tailings are discharged into coastal environments, temporal and spatial impacts are progressive, and strongly influence resident organisms. Next steps are to utilize a combination of hi-resolution LiDAR and sonar surveys, a fish-monitoring array, and neural network analysis to characterize the geometry of cobble fields where fish are successful or unsuccessful at producing young.

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Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coastal Issues: United Nations Environmental Programme Addresses Mining Dischargesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coastal Remote Sensing: Merging Physical, Chemical, and Biological Data as Tailings Drift onto Buffalo Reef, Lake Superior

et al. 2021

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“…Once the waste material enters the estuarine or marine water, chemistry happens [50]. Whether this is the interaction between metals and seawater [51], plastics and seawater [52] or the behaviour of the sediments themselves [53], the complex and unlooked for interactions are not stable across time [54]. The sediments themselves do not build in a stable manner: they are prone to disruption by both wind and wave action [55].…”

Section: Unintended Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unnatural Cycles: Anthropogenic Disruption To Health And Planetary Functions

Gibson¹,

Stewart²

2022

Preprint

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Natural cycles underpin the very stuff of life. In this commentary we consider unnatural cycles: that is, anthropogenic activities which have a circularity, but whose nature is to have a detrimental effect on human health, exacerbating existing problems. Natural cycles have feedback loops, some of which have recently come to light, with an understanding that everything is connected in some way. In health, feedback loops are imperative in homeostatic mechanisms. However, in the unnatural cycle the feedback loops serve to reinforce (and in some cases amplify) negative problems. We offer a commentary on an unnatural cycle moving from air quality to lung function and back to air quality; we call this the lung disease unnatural cycle. We suggest where links occur, and where wider consideration of interactions between various disciplines can lead to breaking this unnatural (or vicious) cycle, changing it to a healthy cycle where individual health can be improved, along with better global scale outcomes. We suggest that many activities within this unnatural cycle occur within silos. However, the improved cycle incorporates joint activities at geological, health, and financial levels, to the mutual benefit of all, breaking the unnatural cycle, and improving health, life and financial costs.

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Contaminated sites and Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States: A scoping review

Chong,

Basu

2023

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Indigenous communities are disproportionately exposed to contaminated sites, and this poses unique challenges as many Indigenous peoples consider land as an integral part of their culture and economy. This scoping review aimed to identify and map information on contaminated sites and Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States, namely (1) the relationship between contaminated sites and Indigenous peoples and their land and food systems; (2) strategies, challenges, and successes for contaminated sites assessment and management on Indigenous land; and (3) Indigenous leadership and inclusion in contaminated site assessment and management. We followed a PRISMA‐ScR (Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses‐Extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist to collect data that could be categorized into these three objectives. Between October 2021 and July 2023, information from three data streams was retrieved: a systematic literature search; a grey literature search; and federal site data retrieval (Canada's Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory, USEPA's contaminated sites databases, including Superfund). This search yielded 51 peer‐reviewed articles, 21 grey literature articles, and 11 404 federal site records, evidencing the contamination of the lands of 875 Indigenous communities and the presence of 440 different contaminants or contaminant groups. The body of information was categorized into three themes within the above objectives: Objective 1: Indigenous communities and geographic patterns; Contaminated sites, sources, and media; Contaminated sites and Indigenous lands; Contaminated sites and Indigenous food systems; Contaminated sites and the health of Indigenous peoples; Objective 2: Site management and classification processes; Health risk assessment; Risk management; Long‐term management; and Objective 3: Collaborative research, Collaborative site management; Traditional knowledge and contaminated sites. Results highlighted a need to prioritize holism, efficiency, and Indigenous leadership in site assessment, management, and research, including a focus on community‐specific approaches to site assessment and management; a reconceptualization of risks that privileges Indigenous epistemologies; and greater collaboration between stakeholder networks. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;00:1–24. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

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Copper-rich “Halo” off Lake Superior’s Keweenaw Peninsula and how Mass Mill tailings dispersed onto tribal lands

Cited by 10 publications

References 67 publications

Coastal Remote Sensing: Merging Physical, Chemical, and Biological Data as Tailings Drift onto Buffalo Reef, Lake Superior

Coastal Remote Sensing: Merging Physical, Chemical, and Biological Data as Tailings Drift onto Buffalo Reef, Lake Superior

Unnatural Cycles: Anthropogenic Disruption To Health And Planetary Functions

Contaminated sites and Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States: A scoping review

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