TRACING THE LEGACY ENVIRONMENTAL DUST RELEASE FROM THE JACKPILE MINE, PUEBLO OF LAGUNA, NM BY PARTICULATE MATTER CAPTURE AND BIOACCUMULATION BY LICHEN

The Western USA hosts significant uranium deposits that were exploited during the uranium boom of the 1950s. Many of these mines were later abandoned with minimal to no remediation; this project focuses on the Jackpile-Paguate abandoned uranium mine in New Mexico on the Pueblo of Laguna. No environmental monitoring of particulate matter produced as a result of open pit mining was carried out during the three-decade period of uranium ore extraction. This study uses lichen as a passive bio-monitor for legacy environmental air quality for the areas in and around the mine site and surrounding communities. Mineralogical and chemical analyses of the lichen are carried out by SEM, ICP-OES, and ICP-MS to determine the characteristics of the captured particulate matter and trace element compositions of the lichen. SEM results so far have found metal particulates of Ni and stainless steel that are likely signatures of anthropogenic pollution, with little to no signatures of heavy metal contamination such as U or As from the mine. Additional sampling at different distances from the mine will continue to determine whether the lichen record mineralogical and trace element signatures of windblown transport of particulate matter. This project has important implications as a possible way to monitor pollution around other abandoned uranium mines in the Western USA, especially near disproportionately affected indigenous communities.