The Gold King Mine “blowout” of August 2015 created a lot of tension for the cities of Silverton and Durango. The Gold King Mine blowout was a giant problem for the cities of Silverton and Durango, and even temporarily effected Farmington’s amount of power. Up to three million gallons of mine water was released, all of which was full of iron oxyhydroxide that flowed all the way into Utah. The water even turned orange, bringing a lot of national attention to the Animas River, the river that was affected greatly by this spill.
        In this project, I will test the water from various creeks with Daphnia magna and lettuce seeds from water bodies around Durango and Silverton, Daphnia being small crustaceans that are usually used in feeding aquarium fish. Along with these tests, I will find the PH and TDS of the samples. Daphnia magna and lettuce seeds are commonly used in bioassays for water quality and toxicity. I expected to discover that the water bodies with mine water feeding into them would be toxic, and this hypothesis has proven to be accurate.
        My results showed the Gold King Mine output, Cement Creek, and Mineral Creek grew short lettuce seed roots, did not support suitable life for daphnia magna, had low PH, and had high TDS. These water bodies had mines feeding into them, which supports my hypothesis. My results also showed that the least toxic water bodies were Junction Creek, Cascade Creek, and Deer Creek. Likewise, all of these creeks had long lettuce seed roots, supported suitable life for Daphnia magna, had high PH, and had low TDS. These creeks had very few mines feeding into them.