Service Description: This point feature class contains location information used for soil and sediment sampling of mercury contamination in and around the Lahontan Reservoir, Carson River Mercury National Priorities List Site, Nevada, USA. Samples were collected in 1993 by the US Bureau of Reclamation to assess the risk posed to recreational users of the beaches surrounding the Reservoir. Results from the survey can be found in a related table titled "Soil and Sediment Mercury Sample Results, Lahontan Reservoir, 1993, USBR." The report, summarizing the findings at this Reservoir, and several other recreational settings in the Carson River Basin, is entitled "Mercury in the Carson River Basin, California and Nevada", Technical Memorandum TSC-2005-8290-001, Craft, Fields and Yoder, October 2005.
Service ItemId: ec2a78559d484fb78224f0a686352a73
Has Versioned Data: false
Max Record Count: 2000
Supported query Formats: JSON
Supports applyEdits with GlobalIds: False
Supports Shared Templates: False
All Layers and Tables
Layers:
Description: This is a summary of mercury (Hg) data from the Lahontan Reservoir area of the Carson River Basin. USBR provided an information overview and reference source on mercury (Hg) in soils for water resources managers and researchers working in the Carson River Basin. These data and the data tables provide results of the Lahontan Reservoir area, focused on the camp sites and the beaches, in order to measure concentrations of Hg to evaluate potential human health exposure pathways. The original sources of Hg contamination in the Carson River Basin are from historic gold and silver mining and associated milling of the Comstock Lode near Virginia City, Nevada.
Runoff and erosion from an estimated 236 'stamp mills', driven by flumes, resulted in a cummulative release of an estimated 7,500 Tons of elemental mercury into the Carson River Basin. The elemental mercury, imported from mines in California and used to almalgamate the ore at the stamp mills, contaminated sediments throughout the Basin from the source area situated approximately between Carson City and Dayton, to the terminal wetlands in the Carson Sink. This area is the primary source of Hg pollution in the Basin, considering the naturally occurring mercury concentrations are close to the crustal average. During runoff and flood events, the River laterally cuts through the contaminated sediments in the overbanks and transports Hg with suspended sediments, and with concentrations rising with higher flow.
When Lahontan Reservoir was built in 1915, it became a settling basin for suspended Hg from the Carson River, and while it retains up to 90 percent of influent sediments, the reservoir continues to pass significant concentrations of suspended and dissolved inorganic Hg and methylmercury (Me-Hg) downstream to the Carson Sink. The EPA is publishing this data in support of the Carson River Mercury NPL Site in Nevada. Data was compiled and evaluated for the OU2 Remedial Investigation Report (EPA, 2017), which describes the nature and extent of contamination from the Site. Literature and other source Hg data are summarized in the RI, for surface waters, sediments, and biological tissues. The report contains the Human Health Risk Assessment and Ecological Risk Assessment.
Metadata
Copyright Text: USBR
Spatial Reference: 102100 (3857)
Initial Extent:
XMin: -13270877.7736253
YMin: 4772768.58338378
XMax: -13249874.7861521
YMax: 4788598.24176558
Spatial Reference: 102100 (3857)
Full Extent:
XMin: -13349726.3479149
YMin: 4730802.87212855
XMax: -13166928.2242572
YMax: 4859740.83435133
Spatial Reference: 102100 (3857)
Units: esriMeters
Child Resources:
Info
Supported Operations:
Query
ConvertFormat
Get Estimates