EVALUATION OF ARSENIC EXTENT AND MOBILIZATION IN SOIL AND VEGETATION SURROUNDING ABANDONED, ULTRA-ENRICHED ARSENIC MINES IN BLACK MOUNTAIN OPEN SPACE PARK, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Black Mountain Open Space Park in San Diego, CA is part of the Santiago Peak Volcanic Formation, a heterogeneous meta-volcanic unit that is locally ultra-enriched in arsenic (As). Small scale, artisanal-type As mining occurred during the early 1920s. Mines were abandoned with little documentation and no obvious remediation efforts. Initial field study by portable XRF yielded As concentrations up to 480,000 ppm in abandoned mines and rock outcrops throughout the park. This study is a first step towards understanding As fractionation in soils surrounding the mines. Twelve samples from the surface 5 cm of soil were collected in a ~48 m² grid between two of the abandoned mines to determine how As concentration varies spatially, the degree of As mobilization during rain events, and how plants sequester As and affect soil As. Soils were pressed into pellets for analysis via WDXRF, and LOI was used to distinguish between organic and mineral-rich soils. To simulate transport by precipitation, 1:5 DI water leaches were performed on soils for 1 h, 24 h, and 7 day periods. Vegetation (miner’s lettuce, lemonade berry, and fern) was collected from the grid and will be analyzed by SEM-EDS for the extent of As throughout plant roots and bodies. While the crustal average for As is 1.5 ppm, soil concentration of As varies from hundreds of ppm to tens of thousands of ppm between the two mines. Consistent with hypotheses, the two greatest As concentrations occurred in rocky soils, possibly due to the presence of waste rock in the naturally occurring San Miguel-Exchequer rocky silt loam. Vegetation in the area appears healthy, but is not growing consistently across the grid, so SEM data will be compared with soil organic matter content and As concentration. San Diego’s semi-arid climate causes low precipitation and increased rates of soil erosion, making aeolian dispersion a likely mode of As transport. Consequently, there is a potential health risk for those travelling off-trail to visit the mines, hiking along the trails, and living in the canyon outlet. This is the first soil-plant arsenic study in a broader project aimed at understanding potential impact to public health. Additionally, this project has implications for the geologic occurrence of extreme As concentrations in igneous rocks from island arc settings.