186 WARD, CANTON, AND GRAY 



The Trout Creek study shows that mining in the West need not 

 be as seriously damaging to the stream ecosystem as mining in the 

 eastern states. Although the Trout Creek basin had been mined 

 for about 30 years, macroinvertebrates exhibited no definitive 

 indications of stressed conditions in the stream section studied. 

 Although Edna Mine spoils are extensive, we should emphasize that 

 the headwaters of Trout Creek provide a source of organisms for 

 recolonization of affected areas downstream. The mine spoils 

 adjacent to Trout Creek are 30 to over 100 m from the stream 

 channel. This buffer zone between the mine spoils and the stream 

 apparently reduces sediment input and the quantities of other 

 potentially harmful substances. It is postulated that physical, 

 chemical, and biological processes occurring in the soil of the buffer 

 zone reduce the toxicity of certain substances and retard the 

 movement of potentially harmful substances into the stream channel. 

 This is an area of research which merits further investigation. 



ACKNOWLEDGMEIMTS 



We wish to thank R. K. Skogerboe, Department of Chemistry, 

 Colorado State University, for suggestions regarding the manuscript 

 and for supplying unpublished chemical data. This research was 

 funded in part by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 

 Environmental Research Laboratory, Duluth, Minn. (Research Grant 

 No. R803950), and by a National Science Foundation Energy 

 Traineeship awarded to S. P. Canton. This paper is based in part on a 

 thesis submitted by S. P. Canton in partial fulfillment of require- 

 ments for a M.S. degree in zoology at Colorado State University. The 

 Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, 

 provided support facilities and coordinated research activities. 



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Washington, D.C. 

 Cairns, John, Jr., 1976, Heated Waste-Water Effects on Aquatic Ecosystems, in 



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1975, G. W. Esch and R. W. McFarlane (Eds.), pp. 32-38, CONF-750425, 



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 Canton, S. P., and J. V. Ward, 1978, Environmental Effects of Western Energy 



Development. Part II. The Aquatic Macroinvertebrates of Trout Creek, 



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 Dills, G., and D. T. Rogers, Jr., 1974, Macroinvertebrate Community Structure 



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