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Matthew Johnson
Connie Douglas
ENGL 2116 Intro to Technical Communication

A Study of Potential Use of Geographic Information Systems in Contaminant Mitigation and Land-Use
Reclamation Projects

Introduction to GIS

Making decisions based on geography is a basic component of human thinking. By

understanding basic geographic principles and peoples inherent link to location, informed
decisions about the stewardship of Earth as a system can be understood. A geographic
information system (GIS) is a computerized tool for comprehending vast amounts of geographic
data. A GIS organized geographic data in such a way that a user can select and manipulate
specific data that is necessary for the current project or task. For example, using datasets from
the U.S. Census Bureau, a social GIS analyst can find and implement a basemap of nearly any
town in the United States to show residents education levels, ages, employment statuses, crime
rates, income levels, etc. These variables are compiled into a single dataset, commonly called a
raster dataset. From this compilation of data, computations and analysis can be carried out. GIS
can deliver insights from data by identifying, displaying, analyzing, and deciphering real world
problems. GIS-based technology provides state-of-the-art analytical and management tools to

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spatially analyze and study patterns and spatial variations and correlations to make more
informed decisions.

Figure 1 - Example of layers used in raster analysis (Craynon 201)

The current, advanced GIS programs are interactive. Analysts can scan a GIS map in any
direction, zoom to many scales, and change the nature of the information contained in the map in
a very short amount of time, something that has not been possible in the past. This allowance of
multiple criteria evaluation (MCE) make GIS an invaluable tool for integrating data in a project
planning process. This interactivity of GIS programs has become so widely accepted and user-

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friendly that the most comprehensive GIS program, Google Earth, has become free to the public
and is widely used.

Early GIS John Snow

One of the first successful applications of a rudimentary GIS came in the year 1854 when a
physician by the name of John Snow overlaid a street map of London with a map of water pumps
and a map of cholera outbreaks. This map is famous in the geography world for good reason.
John Snow linked cholera to contaminated water sources. His study is considered the birth of
both geographic information systems and epidemiology, the study of disease patterns.

Figure 2 A recreated version of John Snows cholera map

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Common Current GIS Applications

The use of GIS is often determined by a purpose, i.e., it is used as a tool to serve an ultimate
goal. Generally, a GIS implementation may be custom-designed for an organization; a GIS
deployment developed for an application, jurisdiction, enterprise, or purpose may not be
compatible with a GIS that has been developed for some other application, jurisdiction,
enterprise, or purpose. These applications are widespread. Industries, businesses, and
governments use GIS for real estate, public health, crime mapping, national defense, natural
resource management, climatology, development, landscape architecture, urban planning,
logistics, and transportation, to name a few.
GIS is also often used to monitor sites of contamination for metal contaminants in the soil, and
based on the GIS analysis, highest risk sites are identified in which majority of the remediation
and monitoring takes place. GIS is used in making spatial interpolations of contaminants in the
soil and water, which allows for more efficient approaches to remediation and monitoring of soil
and water contaminants.
Another GIS technique, georeferencing, can be put upon a pedestal above all other practical tools
in the world of GIS. This process allows satellite imagery to be put above digitized maps and the
attributes of both be combined into a single raster dataset. When used in unison with GIS
programs, this georeferencing is used to make interactive maps with wide spatial range and
depths of useful data, depending on the project at hand.

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GIS in Land Use Remediation

In an increasingly demanding economy, production of essential materials only increases. With

this increasing demand, accidents become more prone, regardless of the effort given to avoid
them. These accidents can range from minor mishaps to major spills, but for the focus of land use
remediation services, major industrial spills take precedent. These spills can be major
environmental disasters that disturb local ecosystems for months, years, and possibly decades.
The use of GIS software in mapping contaminants in soil and water is a practice that has grown
widespread during the last decade, due to soil and water contamination by metals and other
contaminants. These contaminants have become a major environmental problem after the
industrialization across many parts of the world. For the most severe of cases, these contaminants
have the potential wreak havoc on local wildlife for decades and must be dealt with immediately.
This practice is often referred to as land use remediation.
Land use remediation simply refers to returning damaged land to its prior state so that it may
be productive again. For a majority of land use remediation projects, there has been a man-made
problem that has damaged the environment. One may refer back to the infamous BP oil spill of
2010 for an example of how badly an ecosystem can be affected by a simple mistake.
Remediation projects for the aforementioned oil spill are ongoing, and likely will be for the
foreseeable future, but for less major incidents, remediation projects can accomplish their goal in
less than a decade.

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GIS in Hydrology & Water Contamination

GIS has quickly been adopted by government and industry as a way to manage the most precious
resource on the planet, fresh water. Always advancing technology has allowed technicians to
protect water supply integrity by approaching water systems from a human point of view while
simultaneously managing water using in their jurisdiction. Because water inherently varies
spatially and temporally throughout the hydrologic cycle, its study using GIS is especially
practical. GIS platforms have become increasingly dynamic, narrowing the gap between
historical data and current hydrologic reality, allowing technicians to have an up to date snapshot
of water resources.
Water contamination is often the quickest and most damaging variety of environmental disaster.
Because of this, active aquifers are commonly monitored for any sort of heavy metal
contamination and naturally, some aquifers are more prone to contamination than others.
A widespread model used to map aquifer vulnerability is referred to as DRASTIC. The
parameters that are taken into consideration when calculating the vulnerability of aquifers to
contamination are: depth to water (d), net recharge (r), aquifer media (a), soil media (s),
topography (factor t), impact of the vadose zone (i), and the hydraulic conductivity (factor c), or
DRASTIC. When combined, these metrics will give the DRASTIC summary a scored index,
ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lower risk areas and 5 being of higher risk. Using this
model, a map would be created akin to this example, a DRASTIC summary of seven West
Florida counties and their aquifers.

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Figure 3 - DRASTIC summary index for West FL. Blue is the least vulnerable area and red is the most vulnerable. (Soulis 224)

Current methodology and GIS technology would have aided in some of the historically worst
water resource disasters such as the Britannia Copper Mine leaks. Once the largest copper mine
in the British Commonwealth, the Britannia copper mine was located only forty kilometers from
Vancouver. It started production in 1904 and peaked in 1929, where it mined and milled fiftyfive hundred tons of raw ore per day. It closed in 1974 due to rising costs from aging equipment
and a large drop in American copper prices due to heavy competition. The Britannia mine is an

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example of a legacy mine that caused water pollution throughout and long after its production
cycle ended.

Figure 4 A 3D view of Britannia Mine. Modelling in this way could help in examining the spatial extent of pollution.
(McCandless 13)

Ending Britannias pollution posed an intractable technical problem for three reasons: the rocks,
the structure, and the climatic setting. Britannia ore bodies occur within the very large mass of
granitic rocks forming the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and Alaska. The ores carry high
concentrations of metallic sulphide minerals, which, when exposed to oxygen and water causes
them to form weak acids. When this happens in metallic ores, the acids can dissolve other
minerals and release toxic heavy metals like copper, zinc, or cadmium into streams and creeks,
something that was prevalent as the Britannia copper mine leaked toxic elements into local
freshwater for nearly a century. By utilizing GIS analysis, the negative impacts of this event, and
those like it in modern day, could be better understood, both on an environmental and geographic
level.

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GIS in Soil Contamination Mitigation

GIS is an extremely valuable tool when mapping contamination over large areas. Information
from contaminant maps created with GIS help to show environmental engineers the areas in the
most need of remediation. Furthermore, GIS might be used to map other persistent pollutants in
order to expedite their remediation before bioaccumulation becomes a problem. In modern
sedimentology, GIS has been used extensively in mapping soil contamination. These
contamination sources vary widely, but are usually confined to being from industrial practices or
mining operations. Most studies seem to follow a similar procedure when mapping heavy
metals. First soil samples are taken and located through GPS technology and are tested for
concentrations of different heavy metals. After all tests are complete, statistical analyses are
performed in order to normalize and group the data, which is an important step, especially for
when multiple metals are being observed. Finally, the sample point information is overlaid on a
map of the study area and interpolation is used to find the areas of highest concentration. This
common methodology can be used to locate point-source contamination in a variety of locales
and has been used heavily in the Appalachia region of the United States to study heavy soil
contamination and mitigation from coal mining.
Coal mining operations are a necessary environmental burden for the purpose of mass energy
generation in the United States. The act of mining is not a sustainable practice, no matter what
practices and methods used during the process. However, better operation can be implemented to
mitigate risk and potential damage to surrounding ecosystems. Because of the United States
environmental laws, such as the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, any
removal mining (which includes mountaintop removal coal mining) must have firm plans in

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place to remediate the land after mining operations have concluded. This sustainable practice has
been recognized as an important goal in implementation of environmental regulatory programs.
Such programs can utilize GIS practices to map and plan potential interactions between local
systems, allowing for special interpretation of sustainability conflict areas. These methods were
used in a study of mountaintop removal coal mining in Logan County, West Virginia.

Figure 5 Spruce No. 1 mine distance to developed areas. (Craynon 204)

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Figure 6 - Spruce No. 1 mine distance to streams. (Craynon 205)

By mapping these potential environmental conflicts sustainability indices were constructed from
at least one measure of economic, social and environmental impact, although an index will
become increasingly meaningful as more parameters are considered. For this particular case
study, if the GIS methods mentioned were used during the planning and permitting process of the
mine planning, many of the common problems of coal mining planning could have been avoided.

Gold King Mine Case Study

One of the worst environmental disasters of recent times, the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water
spill was an environmental disaster at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. On August
5, 2015, EPA personnel caused a massive release of toxic wastewater when attempting to add

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additional securing hardware to a previously sealed adit to the mine. The accident caused over
three million gallons of mine waste water and metal tailing (remnants of mining operations) to
flow into the Animas River in Colorado. These contaminants include heavy metals such as
cadmium, lead, arsenic, and iron, among other toxic elements. The spill ultimately affected water
supplies in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah as well as the Navajo Nation.

Figure 7- Generalized geology surrounding Gold King Mine (Gobla 17)

Figure 8 - Map showing extent of contamination. (Gobla 42)

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Extensive use of GIS methodology discussed throughout this report should be, and very well
may be, used to spatially reference the ultimate damage that this disaster has caused.

Figure 9 - Animus River before/after the Gold King Mine spill.

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Conclusion

Information technology experts across the country have encouraged the adoption of GIS by local
units of government. In general, maps are easier to create, use, maintain, correct, and re-print in a
computer environment. Digital data can be stored, duplicated, transferred far more efficiently
than paper records. By linking databases to maps for display and analyses, GIS can also support
more effective land use planning, infrastructure planning and management, bus routing, and a
whole host of analytical activities by allowing visual pattern recognition. There is a vast
difference between seeing data in a table of rows and columns and seeing it presented in the form
of a map. The difference is not simply aesthetic, it is conceptual. Simply understanding where
things are is a first step in understanding spatial patterns and relationships, especially when
concerning land use remediation and contamination mitigation projects.

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