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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Final Progress Reports: University of Arizona: Revegetation of Mining Wastes in Arid and Semiarid Environments: Plant-Microbe-Metal Interactions and Fertility Island Effects

Superfund Research Program

Revegetation of Mining Wastes in Arid and Semiarid Environments: Plant-Microbe-Metal Interactions and Fertility Island Effects

Project Leader: Raina M. Maier
Co-Investigators: Jon Chorover, Julie W. Neilson, Francisco E. Molina-Freaner (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Mark D. Barton
Grant Number: P42ES004940
Funding Period: 2005-2020
View this project in the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT)

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Final Progress Reports

Year:   2019  2016  2014  2009 

This project seeks to develop revegetation technology for legacy and modern mine wastes. The main field site is the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter Superfund site in Dewey-Humboldt Arizona. This year was the sixth season at the site representing three different field trials that each build upon knowledge gained from the prior field trial. Field work is complemented with bench-scale experimentation. Standard revegetation practice requires placing a soil cap on the mine waste which is then seeded. The goal of this research is to determine the minimum amount and type of amendments required to establish plants directly in the mine tailings thereby avoiding the use of a soil cap. Soil caps are costly in terms of the need to physically move large amounts of material and the environmental destruction involved in scraping off large amounts of topsoil from nearby areas. Underpinning development of this technology is basic research to determine the biogeochemical processes in the mine waste that govern both the biology of the site, if the production of acid mine drainage can be stopped, as well as the geochemical fate of toxic metals (arsenic, lead, etc.) in the tailings, if amendments and plants help immobilize these contaminants. The translational significance of this work is apparent from the interest that the research team is receiving from mining companies, congress, and the media. This work has leveraged contracts with three major companies to test our technology at their sites. Expertise developed has resulted in two requests in the past year to testify in congressional hearings.

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