Water Resources Research Act Program

Principal Investigators: Lisa Kirk

Abstract: Executive Summary. My dissertation research focuses on subsurface microbial transformation of selenium (Se) in backfilled phosphate mine wastes in SE Idaho. Se release associated with weathering of mine wastes has been recognized as a threat to human health and the environment at numerous mine sites, affecting water quality not only in Idaho but also in Montana and other states. Abandoned mines in the Garrison district of Montana produced phosphate from the same section of the Phosphoria Formation that is currently mined in SE Idaho (MT DEQ, 2006), and Se release from waste rock at the closed Beal Mountain gold mine near Fairmont, MT is also a management concern (Backus, 2006). At high rates of exposure, Se is known to be toxic to the nervous and circulatory systems, and is therefore regulated in both surface water and groundwater.