Flash Flood Water Sampling in Remote Areas: Application of MiniSippers for Automated, High-Resolution, Long Duration Water Quality Monitoring during Extreme Events in NP Thomas Chapin (CO), Joel Unema (AZ), Fred Tillman (AZ), USGS

National Water Quality Monitoring Conference, Denver, March 28, 2019 Session K7, Extreme Events

"Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government" In 2012, the Department of Interior closed ~1 million acres of Federal land in the Grand Canyon watershed to new mining claims. USGS and other federal agencies tasked with researching the potential effects of uranium mining on the natural resources in the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) and surrounding areas. Both natural uranium sources and abandoned mine uranium sources are found in tributaries to the in Grand Canyon NP. 10000 8000 ) s f c

( 6000

w o l

F 4000

2000

0 7/1 7/21 8/10 8/30 9/19 10/9 Sampling requires a 18 day CO river expedition to Date (2013) access sites. Big rafts & huge amount of equipment. Water sampling of potential U source tributaries to CO River in GCNP •Episodic summer monsoon rains can lead to extreme flash floods in tributaries: •Kanab Creek can go from 5 cfs to >10,000 cfs in <60 minutes, 14’ depth change •Some of the highest sediment loads ever recorded by USGS (>1,000,000 mg/L sand)

•Travertine (CaCO3) precipitation clogs submerged instruments at Havasu & LCR •Extremely difficult and expensive to access tributary sampling sites •10-25 mile hike (one way), 5000’ vertical, dangerous in summer (110oF, no water) •River: 18 day raft trip, 2 times a year, only ~10-12 hours work time at each site •Cost: >$10,000 to get a single sample at each site (raft trip, equip, salaries, etc.) •2 WQ samples/year, rarely at sampling site during flash flood events •Power is a problem: very limited solar recharge so need large batteries USGS gage station

Havasu Creek-July 11, 2018, 19:00 Flow = 75 cfs USGS gage station

Havasu Creek-July 11, 2018, 19:30 Flow = 3700 cfs Water depth increase by 9 ft Very turbid, high sediment water How do we automatically collect water samples in Grand Canyon NP?

ISCO Sampler MiniSipper • $4,500 • $2,000 • Reliable, easy to use • Not easy to use • 1000 mL samples (24) • 5 mL samples (~240) • Out of stream • Small, light, portable • Can pull water up 25’ • Runs 12 months • Large, Heavy • Small batteries • (>120 lbs) • Filters and acid • not very portable preserve samples • Large batteries + solar • Submerged, works in • Works well for • Acidic water sediment samples • Under ice • WQ samples: • No filtration • Acid preservation • Can’t operate in freezing conditions Pumps, battery N bag MiniSipper (mini segmented water sampler) & electronics 2 Sample 5mL N2 .45 um samples bubbles Pump filter Battery & Bubble Electronics Pump 10 um Acid Acid 500’teflon sample coil inlet Pump coil filter Waterproof housing Waterproof housing 500’sampler coil Penn Mine Daily Snowmelt Runoff (n=113) • ~240 5 mL samples (discrete, integrated, event trigger) 70 3.5 Zn • Small (12” x 10”), lightweight, submerged (2-3’ max) 60 Al C

Cu 3.0 o n

• Battery powered, for remote or difficult to access areas 50 d ) Cond u L c / t

g 2.5 i • Samples separated by inert gas bubble, <5% carryover 40 v i m t ( y l

( a m • ICP-MS provides sub ppb detection of >50 elements t 30

e 2.0 S / M c

• 6-12 month deployments (operates under snow/ice) 20 m 1.5 ) • Low cost (~$2000), fewer site visits, lower field costs 10

• 10 mm inlet filter + 0.45 mm filter + acid preservation 0 1.0 5/15 5/25 6/4 6/14 6/25 7/5 7/15 • Excellent agreement grab samples (usually + 10%) Date (2014) • Not simple and easy to use, a lot of things can go wrong • MiniSipper cost/sample ~10-200x less than grab sampling

Chapin, T.P. and Todd, A.S. MiniSipper: A new in situ water sampler for high-resolution, long- duration acid mine drainage monitoring. Science of the Total Environment. vol 439 (2012) 343–353. Thomas Chapin [email protected], 303-236-5795 10W solar panel

Lift pump Lift Pump box MiniSipper above expected flood height

MiniSipper ~15’ above baseflow

Initial 5 stage filter clogged FlashFlood MiniSipper Modifications • Place MiniSipper above expected flood stage • Lift Pump pulls water through inlet filter and 7 stage pumps up to MiniSipper inlet filter • Robust 7 stage inlet filtration •Handles high sediment events • Initial MiniSipper deployments failed badly • Inlet and 0.45 mm capsule filters clogged • Sample trigger problems • Only discover failure 6 months later 100mm 50mm 50mm 5mm 1mm 1mm 1mm Sat antennae Solar Havasu

Fake rocks hiding USGS gage station, Iscos, and DCP MiniSipper

ISCO-Sipper intake lines ISCO

ISCOs for long duration Water Quality sampling? • 24 sample bottles can sit for 6 months • uncovered, unfiltered, un-acidified • Experiments to evaluate evaporation losses • Experiments to evaluate changes in chemistry MiniSipper provides: • ~240 samples (filtered and preserved) • Able to capture multiple flash flood events MiniSipper Havasu Creek-2016 Havasu MiniSipper U-238 Flow (cfs) 3.0 600 2.5 500 Dry summer, only a few F ) l

2.0 400 o L w /

small flash flood events g 1.5 300 ( m c ( f

1.0 200 s U ) Havasu Baseflow = 75 cfs 0.5 100 U ~ 3 mg/L 0.0 0 8/27 8/28 8/29 8/30 8/31 9/1 9/2 9/3 9/4 Se ~2 mg/L Date (2016) As ~11 mg/L Havasu MiniSipper Se-82 Flow (cfs) 2.0 600 Primarily seeing 500 1.5 F ) l

400 o L w

a dilution signal at Havasu / g

1.0 300 ( m c during these 2016 events (

200 f s e )

S 0.5 100 0.0 0 8/27 8/28 8/29 8/30 8/31 9/1 9/2 9/3 9/4 Date (2016) Drinking water STD U = 30 mg/L Havasu MiniSipper As-75 Flow (cfs) 5 600 Se = 50 mg/L 500

4 F ) l

As = 10 mg/L 400 o L w / 3 g

300 ( m c ( f 2 s s 200 ) A 1 100 0 0 8/27 8/28 8/29 8/30 8/31 9/1 9/2 9/3 9/4 Date (2016) Kanab U-238 Flow (cfs) Kanab Creek-2016 8 1000 K a

800 n 6 a ) Dry summer, only a b

L F / 600 g l few small flash flood o m 4 w (

400 ( events U c f

2 s

200 ) Kanab Baseflow, 4 cfs 0 0 U = 4 mg/L 9/22 6:00 9/22 18:00 9/23 6:00 9/23 18:00 9/24 6:00 Se = 3 mg/L Kanab Se-82 Flow (cfs) As = <1 mg/L 5 1000 K )

4 800 a L n / a g b

m 3 600

Primarily seeing ( F

l e o

a dilution signal at S 2 400 w

(

Kanab during these c

1 200 f s 2016 events ) 0 0 9/22 6:00 9/22 18:00 9/23 6:00 9/23 18:00 9/24 6:00 Kanab As-75 Flow (cfs) Drinking water STD 6 1000 K ) U = 30 mg/L 5 a n

L 800 / a g 4 b

Se = 50 mg/L m F ( 600

l

o As = 10 mg/L s 3 w

A 400

2 ( c f 200 s 1 ) 0 0 9/22 6:00 9/22 18:00 9/23 6:00 9/23 18:00 9/24 6:00 25 U-238 LCR mouth Flow (cfs) 3500 3000 Little CO River (LCR) 2016 20 ) F l

L 2500 o / w g 15 2000 m

( (

More monsoon storms than c

1500 f U 10 s Kanab or Havasu with a 1000 ) 5 few bigger events 500 0 0 8/1 8/19 9/6 9/24 10/12 10/30 11/17 Date (2016) LCR Baseflow ~200 cfs 600 Se-82 LCR mouth Flow (cfs) 3500 U ~ 7 mg/L 500 3000 F Se ~2 mg/L )

2500 l L 400 o / w g 2000

As ~3 mg/L m (

( 300 c

f

e 1500 s S 200 1000 ) 100 500 Drinking water STD 0 0 U = 30 mg/L 8/1 8/19 9/6 9/24 10/12 10/30 11/17 Se = 50 mg/L Date (2016) As-75 LCR mouth Flow (cfs) As = 10 mg/L 30 3500 25 3000 ) F

L 2500 l /

20 o g 2000 w m

(

15 (

c s 1500 f s A 10 1000 ) 5 500 0 0 8/1 8/19 9/6 9/24 10/12 10/30 11/17 Date (2016) U-238 Flow (cfs) Little CO River large 25 2000 dynamic watershed with 20 F ) 1500 l L o numerous tributaries (some / w

g 15

m ( ( 1000 c with abandoned mines, f

U 10 s some without). ) 5 500 MiniSipper collected 0 0 9/30 10/1 10/2 10/3 10/4 filtered and preserved 120 Date (2016) samples Se-82 Flow (cfs) 600 2000 500 F Pulse on Oct 1 ) 1500 l L o

/ 400 w had high levels of U, Se g

m (

( 300 1000 c

f e

and As s S

200 ) 500 100 Pulse on Oct 3 had very 0 0 low levels of Se and As 9/30 10/1 10/2 10/3 10/4 Date (2016) As-75 Flow (cfs) Drinking water STD 60 2000 U = 30 mg/L 50 ) 1500 F L l /

40 o

Se = 50 mg/L g w m

( 30 1000 (

c

As = 10 mg/L s f s A 20 500 ) 10 0 0 9/30 10/1 10/2 10/3 10/4 Date (2016) CA-Post Wildfire MiniSippers Iron Mountain EPA Superfund site, near Redding, CA Flash Flood MiniSippers deployed mid Dec 2018 at Iron Mountain EPA Superfund site. • Post wildfire acid mine drainage signal Flash Flood MiniSippers deployed mid Dec 2018 at Camp Fire sites near Paradise, CA • Post wildfire urban pollution signal Not going well: • Huge winter rains and flood events • Much higher floods than predicted • 4 MiniSippers flooded, 2 lost, 1 stolen Iron Mtn severely burned by Carr fire in July 2018

Camp Fire: 15,000 structures, hundreds of cars Paradise, CA destroyed by Camp Fire Nov 2018 (photo Jackson Webber-CSU Chico) (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Total electronics loss but hopefully have some Lucky find: Iron Mtn Sipper, deployed 12+’ above baseflow. samples in the sample coil Washed 200m+ downstream & completely buried in sand Flash Flood MiniSippers • Provides low-cost, high-resolution, long duration water sampling • Operates in remote and/or dangerous sampling areas • Can handle very high sediment waters with massive inlet filtration • Collect up to 240 5 mL 0.45 mm filtered and acid preserved samples • Only used for metals so far (may work for organics, pesticides, or other pollutants) • Rapid emergency response (wildfires, mine blowout (Gold King), big river floods? hurricanes?) • MiniSipper cost/sample can be >100x less than grab sampling • Questions? Difficult sampling problem? Contact: [email protected] 303-236-5795