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U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CI-RCULAR 1064 Proceedings of the 1990 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium on Selenium in Arid and Semiarid Environments, Western United States AVAILABILITY OF BOOKS AND MAP OF THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Instructions on ordering publications of the U.S. Geological Survey, along with prices of the Jast offerings, arc·Jive!l in the cur rent-year issues of the monthly catalog "New Publications of th U.S. Geological Survey." Prices of available U.l:~ Sur· . vey publications released prior to the current year are listed in e most recent annual "Price and Availability List" Puhlications that are listed in various U.S. Geological Survey catalogs (see b ck inside cover) but not listed in the most recent annual "Price and Availability List" are no longer available. 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E-146, 701 C St. Maps For maps, address mail orders to U.S. Geological Survey, Map Distribution Maps Federal Center, Box 25286 Maps may be purchased over the counter at the U.S. Geologi Denver, CO 80225 cal Survey offices where boob are sold (all addresses in above list) and at the following Geological Survey offices: Residents of Alaska may order maps from • ROLLA, Mlssourl--1400 Independence Rd. Alaska Distribution Section, U.S. Geological Survey, • DENVER, Colorado-Map Distribution, Bldg. 810, Federal New Federal Building - Box 12 Center 101 Twelfth Ave., Fairbanks, AK 99701 • FAIRBANKS, Alaska--New Federal Bld&-..101 Twelfth Ave. Proceedings of the 1990 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium on Selenium in Arid and Semiarid Environments, Western United States -By R.C. SEVERSON, SCOTT E. FISHER, JR., and L.P. GOUGH, EDITORS Proceedings of a plenary session held at the 1990 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium, March 25-30, 1990, Billings, Montana U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 1064 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MANUEL LUJAN, JR., Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1991 For sale by the Books and Open-File Reports Section U.S. Geological Survey Federal Center Box 25425 Denver, CO 80225 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Billings Land Reclamation Symposium on Selenium in Arid and Semiarid Environments, Western United States (1990) . Proceedings of the 1990 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium on Selenium in Arid and Semiarid Environments, Western United States I R.C. Severson, Scott E. Fisher, Jr., and L.P. Gough, editors. p. em. - (U.S. Geological Survey circular ; 1064) Includes bibliographical references. Supt. of Docs. no.: J 19.4/2: 1064 1. Selenium cycle-Congresses. 2. Reclamation of land-Environmental aspects-Congresses. 3. Selenium cycle-West (U.S.)-Congresses. 4. Reclamation of land-Environmental aspects-West (U.S.)-Congresses. J. Severson, R. C. (Ronald Charles), 1945- . JJ. Fisher, Scott E. Jr., 1936- JJJ. Gough, L.P. 1944- JV. Title. V. Series. QH344.B54 no. 1990 574.5'222--dc20 91-10905 CJP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 R.C. Severson, Scott E. Fisher, Jr., and L.P. Gough LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 2 CHAPTER A 5 Selenium Geochemistry-A Conspectus James R. Herring CHAPTER B 25 Solubility, Sorption and Redox Relationships for Selenium in Reclaimed Environments-A Review T.H. Brown CHAPTER C 35 Geobotany of Selenium J.C. Emerick and L.S. DeMarco CHAPTER D 43 Aquatic Cycling of Selenium: Implications for Fish and Wildlife A. Dennis Lemly and Gregory J. Smith CHAPTER E 55 Selenium Mobility in Soils and its Absorption, Translocation, and Metabolism in Plants H.F. Mayland, L.P. Gough, and K.C. Stewart CHAPTER F 65 AB-DTPA Extractable Soil Selenium as a Predictor of Seleniferous Vegetation R.A. Prodgers anf F.F. Munshower CHAPTER G 73 Selenium Poisoning in Livestock L.F. James, H.F. Mayland, and K.E. Panter CHAPTER H 81 Selenium Research at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Ivan S. Palmer and Oscar E. Olson CHAPTER I 89 Selenium In Soils and Plants from Native and Irrigated Lands at the Kendrick Reclamation Project Area, Wyoming J.A. Erdman, R.C. Severson, J.G. Crock, T.F. Harms, and H.F. Mayland CHAPTER J 1 07 Selenium Sources in the Diablo Range, Western Fresno County, California R.R. Tidball, R.C. Severson, T.S. Presser, and W.C. Swain Contents Ill CHAPTER K 115 Preliminary Results of the Department of the Interior's Irrigation Drainage Studies Marc A. Sylvester, Jonathan P. Deason, Herman R. Feltz, and Richard A. Engberg CHAPTER L 123 Selenium Issues in Drastically Disturbed Land Reclamation Planning in Arid and Semi-arid Environments Scott E. Fisher, Jr. and Frank F. Munshower REFERENCES 135 IV Contents Introduction By R.C. Severson, Scott E. Fisher, Jr., and L.P. Gough The fifth edition of the Billings Symposium was held in The importance, and much of our understanding, of Billings, Montana, from March 25 to 30, 1990. Previous selenium in the western United States was accomplished symposia were held in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1987. The initially through the work in the 1930's of Beath and Rosenfeld traditional objectives of these meetings has been to provide a at the University of Wyoming and Byers and Knight at South forum for the transfer of technology on disturbed land Dakota State University. More recently, selenium problems reclamation and to identify research needs relative to the related to Kesterson Reservoir in California have greatly reclamation of surface coal-mined lands. Development of the increased both academic and public interest in the element. Symposium program over the years has resulted in increased Contamination of wildlife refuges and elevated selenium levels numbers of technical sessions representing a wider diversity of in many irrigation return waters pose significant resource resource areas. The meetings have been planned to meet a planning and management problems for this region of the broad cross section of disciplines and professions by including United States. The Surface Mining Reclamation and Control those from the mining industry, consulting firms, academic Act of 1977 (SMCRA) requires the identification of potentially institutions, and Federal and State agencies. In 1990, in toxic materials such as selenium. Overburden analyses, response to participant interest and public concern, the topic completed for permitting under SMCRA, have provided areas were expanded to include hazardous materials, linear evidence of elevated levels of selenium on some permit areas, disturbances, and the reclamation or mitigation of hardrock and related ground water recharge monitoring data indicates mining and mineral processing waste. The 1987 program was the presence of elevated amounts of selenium on some mines. the first Symposium to include a plenary session that was These events formed the basis for the establishment of the focused on a particularly important topic to western disturbed selenium plenary session of the 1990 Symposium. The reports land reclamation: potentially acid-forming materials. This in this Circular provide information on global selenium cycles, Circular contains papers from the 1990 plenary session, which discuss the chemistry of selenium in the near-surface was devoted to selenium in the arid and semiarid western environment, address selenium as it progresses through the United States. food chain, detail field studies in areas where selenium has been reported to be an environmental problem, summarize studies on selenium in agricultural irrigation and drainage, and Manuscript approved for publication February 4, 1991. offer perspectives on managing selenium-affected lands. Introduction 1 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS T.H. Brown T.F. Harms OSM-WTC U.S. Geological Survey Brooks Tower Corbett Building 1020 15th Street 210 East 7th Street Denver, CO 80202 Tucson, AZ 85705 J.G.