ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
OFFICE OF ENFORCEMENT
REPORT ON
REMOTE SENSING STUDY
WHITEWOOD CREEK / BELLE FOURCHE RIVER
SOUTH DAKOTA

DIVISION OF FIELD INVESTIGATIONS - DENVER CENTER
DENVER. COLORADO

JANUARY 1972

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REMOTE SENSING STUDY
WHITEWOOD CREEK/BELLE FOURCHE RIVER, SOUTH DAKOTA
January 1972
Prepared By:
Denver Field Investigations Center
Office of Enforcement
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
Denver, Colorado
A. W. Dybdahl

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REMOTE SENSING STUDY
WHITEWOOD CREEK/BELLE FQURCHE RIVER, SOUTH DAKOTA
January 1972
INTRODUCTION
An aerial remote sensing program was conducted in late November,
1971, over the following areas:
(a)	Whitewood Creek - From Lead, South Dakota, to its point
of confluence with the Belle Fourche River.
(b)	Belle Fourche and Cheyenne Rivers - From a point on the
Belle Fourche River approximately two miles upstream of
the mouth of Whitewood Creek downstream to a point on
the Cheyenne River approximately ten miles from Oahe
Reservoir.
This is sketched in Figure 1.
BACKGROUND
A conference was held on October 19-21, 1971, to present data on
metals pollution of western South Dakota streams. One of the subjects
considered during the conference was the deposition of previously-discharged
Homestake Mining Company tailings solids along Whitewood Creek and the
Belle Fourche and Cheyenne Rivers. Recommendation No. 6^ adopted by
the conferees, stated:
"The location and composition of buried tailings
. materials, including abandoned tailings piles, along
Whitewood Creek, the Belle Fourche River, and the

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Page 2
Cheyenne River shall be ascertained and documented
and the rates of release of heavy metals and toxic
elements be established by the State of South Dakota
and the Environmental Protection Agency by October 1,
1972, and findings reported to the chairman and the
conferees. South Dakota will provide the chairman
of this group."
Following the conference, the Region VIII office of E.P.A. re-
quested DFIC to obtain remote-sensing data to assist in meeting this
requirement.
MISSION PURPOSE
The expressed purpose of this aerial reconnaissance program was
to fulfill the following objectives:
(a)	Document the present courses of the respective waterways.
(b)	Locate, to the extent possible, all mine tailing deposits
in the target area, for subsequent field verification and
sampling. No ground-truth data were requested.
CHRONOLOGICAL DATA
The chronological details of the flight program are given:
(a) 20 November 1971 - Time over target of 10:00-11:15
hours MST in which the areas discussed in sub-paragraphs
(a) and (b) of the introduction were covered.
Flight Altitude - 9,500 feet MSL (barometric altitude,
mean sea level).

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Page 3
(b) 23 November 1971 - Time over target of 9:30-10:45 hours
MST in which Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River
from Whitewood Creek's mouth to a point near Hereford,
South Dakota (point where the general direction of the
river changes from southeasterly to an easterly direction).
This mission was necessary due to adverse weather conditions
in certain sections of the target area resulting in target
misses on the first day-
Flight Altitudes- 9,500 feet MSL and 17,000 feet MSL.
AIRCRAFT SENSOR DATA
The reconnaissance data were recorded aboard two high perfor-
mance aircraft. Each aircraft contained three framing cameras, an
infrared line scanner (IRLS), and a side-looking radar (SLR). All
cameras were mounted in their respective vertical positions coin-
cident with the nadir of the aircraft. Each of the cameras, in
each aircraft, was uploaded with different recording film/optical
filter combinations. They were capable of recording the presence of
optical energy within the following bands of the optical spectrum:
(a)	Near ultraviolet resulting in a 4.5" X 4.5" negative.
(Kodak 2475 Recording Film with a Wratten 47B gelatin
optical filter)
(b)	Visible region of the optical spectrum resulting in a
true-color 4.5" x 4.5" positive aerographic ektachrome
transparency. (Kodak S0 -397 Aerographic Ektachrome Film
with a Wratten HF-3/HF-5 optical filter combination.)

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Page 4
(c) Near infrared region of the optical spectrum overlapped
with a portion of the visible spectrum resulting in an
aerographic ektachrome 4.5" X 4.5" false color (rendition)
transparency. (Kodak 3443 Aerographic Ektachrome Film
with a Wratten 16 gelatin optical filter.)
The IRLS is a cryogenic device (optical and electronic) capable
of detecting passive electromagnetic energy resulting from target
thermal emissions in the infrared band from 8 to 14 microns (1 micron
equals 10 ^ meters).
The SLR is a peculiar radar that transmits microwave energy,
at a particular frequency and polarization, through an antenna which
is directed out the sides of the aircraft. The energy is reflected
from the illuminated terrain back toward the aircraft where it is
taken by the antenna and directed by a microwave network into the
radar receiver. The receiver extracts the data, returned from the
target terrain by the reflected microwave energy, and directs it
to a display/recorder. At this point, the "microwave picture" is
directly recorded on an instrumentation film.
The true color photographic technique served as the basis for
the recording of the presence of mine tailings. It also provided
correct color renditions of targets in question and was extensively
used in target location and in area identifications for the inter-
pretation of the ultraviolet and near infrared films.
The ultraviolet and near infrared photographic media, IRLS and

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Page 5
the SLR provided further refinements in the positive detection,
location, and identification of the mine tailings located in the
river's banks and various meanders. An example of this is the
ability to distinguish between river aluvium and oxidized tailings,
since in true color only, they are approximately the same color.
The fresh (dark gray) tailings concentrations were quite easy to
identify.
DESCRIPTION OF DATA REDUCTIONS
As a result of the interpretation of the airborne reconnaissance
data, the mine tailing deposits (on-land static concentrations) have
been reported on map overlays. The maps used for these overlays were
the applicable USGS 7.5 minute quad maps. The overlay can be placed
over the appropriate quad map yielding:
(a)	Present river course.
(b)	Deviation from old river course.
(c)	The location of mine tailing deposits depected by the
shaded areas.
The overlays are provided as an attachment to this report.
In some cases, large deposits of oxidized tailings have been
indicated on the overlays. This suggests that, in the absence of
new (gray) tailings deposits, the river's waters have not been in
that area for an extended period of time. Such areas represent
filled stream channels, and as such represent probable areas of
major tailings deposits.

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Page 6
The respective quad maps, used for the overlays, are given
in Appendixes 1 and 2, along with the frame counts from the S0-397
true color films. One column, in each appendix, is labeled."High
Altitude" and the others are labeled "Low Altitude 1 and 2". From
the discussion under chronological data, high altitude is 17,000
feet MSL and low altitude is 9,500 feet MSL.
There were no overlays made for the first two quads of Appendix
1, namely Lead, South Dakota, and Deadwood, South Dakota. There
were neither significant course changes nor tailing concentrations
in the Whitewood Creek basin in this particular area.
Attention is directed to the mouth of Whitewood Creek on the
Newell quad map. The dispersion of the creek's outflow into the
Belle Fourche River is shown. Likewise, in the overlay relating
to the Dalzell NE quad, the dispersion of the Belle Fourche waters
into the Cheyenne River is shown (refer to attached overlays).
In several instances, a lack of imagery was indicated on the
respective quad map overlays. This was due to the aircraft missing
extreme reaches of the Belle Fourche River in the photographic endeavor.
All such instances occurred downstream from the Hereford SE, South
Dakota, quad map. The total river area missed is less than four
percent of the total river covered.
On all overlays made for Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche
River, each shaded area was assigned a number and the area was cal-
culated. These numbers and corresponding areas are given in Appendixes
3 and 4. For Whitewood Creek, the shaded area totaled to 199 acres
and for the Belle Fourche River 2,456 acres.

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Page 7
The accuracy of the position of each line drawn on the over-
lays is plus or minus 50 feet.

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APPENDIX 1
WHITEWOOD CREEK IMAGERY FRAME DATA
Low Altitude
USGS Quad
High Altitude
Roll //I
Roll 92
Lead	Beginning to 3314
Deadwood South 3314 to 3311
Deadwood North 3311 to 3302
Sturgis 3302 to 3298
St. Onge Southeast 3298 to 3288
Newell 3287 to 3286
Beginning to 2656	Beginning to 0490
2656 to 2665	0490 to 0506
2665 to 2709	0506 to 0558
2709 to 2723	OUT
2723 to 2759	OUT
2767 to 2777	OUT

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APPENDIX 2
BELLE FOURCHE RIVER IMAGERY FRAME DATA
Low Altitude
USGS Quad
High Altitude
Roll //I
Roll #2
Newell
Vale Northeast
Vale Southeast
Volunteer
Volunteer Southeast
Rapid City
Hereford
Hereford Southwest
Hereford Southeast
3287-3283	2767-
3283-3270	2777-
3270-3270
3270-3259	2794-
3259-3259	2819-
3259-3250	2820-
3250-3247	2848-
3247-3242	2857-
180° & back up-
stream	2872-
2895-
Elm Springs Southwest
Boneita Springs on top of Elm	Springs
Elm Springs South	2917-
Dalzell Northwest	2945-
Dalzell South on bottom of Dalzell Northwest
Dalzell Northeast	2971-
Pedro Northwest	2994-
Pedro	3010-
Howes	3010-
Bridger	3036-
Bridger Southeast	3048-
Rattlesnake Lake Southwest	3065-
2777
2793
-2819
-2821
-2848
¦2857
-2871
-2895
-2917
-2945
-2970
¦2993
¦3010
•3031
•3036
¦3048
¦3065
¦3075
Beginning to 0553
0552-0575
0576-0591
1591-0603
0604-0623
0623-0640
0640-0657
0657-0676
0677-0694
0694-0704
0704-0722
0704-0726
0726-0743
0743-0759
0759-0770

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APPENDIX 2 (Continued)
BELLE FOURCHE RIVER IMAGERY FRAME DATA
	Low Altitude	
USGS Quad	High Altitude	Roll #1	Roll #2
Rattlesnake Lake Southeast	3075-3089	0770-0783
Cherry Creek	3089-3100	0783-0794
Cherry Creek Northwest 		0794-0802
Carlin Flat 		0802-0819

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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
APPENDIX 3
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Whitewood Creek
Area (Ft.^)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)
119,808
331,776
46,080
202,752
27,648
27,648
36,864
73,728
27,648
396,288
663,552
55,296
783,360
340,992
82,944
119,808
92,160
525,312
267,264
92,160
276,480
(Deadwood, S.D.)
(Sturgis, S.D.)
1

22
138,240
23
211,968
24
221,184
25
230,400
26
239,616
27
73,728
28
27,648
29
27,648
30
55,296
31
119,808
32
294,912
33
304,128
34
516,096
35
175,104
36
221,184
37
433,152
38
55,296
39
405,504
40
55,296
41
92,160
42
36,864
43
285,696

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APPENDIX 4
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)


Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)

1
43,500
(Newell, S.D.)
21
117,150
(Vale Northeast






S.D.
)
2
20,900


22
122,500


3
104,500


23
180,500


4
682,500


24
241,400


5
38,500


25
34,200


6
740,000


26
114,000


7
142,100


27
210,000


8
75,200


28
114,000


9
33,250


29
326,800


.10
840,000


30
240,000


11
180,500


31
43,300


11A
191,400


32
168,000


12
180,500
|
i
33
420,000


13
332,500
1

34
1,476,000


14
420,000
(Vale Northeast,
35
240,000




S.D.)





15
235,200


36
240,000


16
16,800


37
221,000


17
235,200


38
210,000


18
960,000


39
247,000


19
43,200
f

40
114,000
«
f
20
168,000
1
'
41
79,800
• <

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42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Area (Ft.2)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)
168,000
(Vale Northeast,
63
35,000

S.D.)



35,000


64
240,000
1,080,000


65
258,750
44,000


66
204,000
80,000


67
216,000
32,000


68
210,000
36,000


69
199,500
91,000


70
276,400
228,000


71
580,608
34,800
1

72
180,800
657,600
(Vale
Southeast,
73
940,032

S.D.)



408,000


74
101,376
180,500
\
1
75
294,912
210,000
(Volunteer, S.D.)
76
276,480
28,000


77
119,808
840,000


78
156,672
472,500
-

79
92,160
115,000


80
387,072
41,000


81
230,400
80,000


82
27,648
152,000

I
83
438,048
(Volunteer, S.D.)

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84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Area (Ft.2)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)
599,040
239,616
138,240
64,512
64,512
73,728
82,944
239,616
46,080
534,528
1,253,376
313,344
82,944
230,400
580,608
479,232
92,160
414,720
359,424
73,728
552,960
f
105
175,000
106
423,936
107
73,728
108
73,728
109
635,904
110
92,160
111
239,616
112
73,728
113
110,592
114
27,648
115
202,752
116
46,080
117
193,536
118
285,696
119
18,432
120
285,695
121
165,888
122
73,728
123
267,264
124
396,288
125
101,376
(Volunteer, S.D.)
(Volunteer South-
east)
'
(Rapid City, S.D.)
t

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APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)

126
46,080 (Rapid City, S.D.) 147
534,528
(Rapid City,




S.D.
)
127
313,344
148
138,240


128
36,864
149
175,104


129
202,752
150
221,184


130
285,696
151
230,400


131
304,128
152
55,296


132
267,264
153
119,808


133
73,728
154
193,536


134
46,080
155
460,080


135
442,368
156
92,160


136
276,480
157
276,480


137
442,368
158
211,968


138
414,720
159
313,344


139
350,208
160
304,128


140
285,696
161
248,832


141
211,968
162
211,968
1
142
672,768
163
165,888
f
143
405,504
164
267,264
(Heref
ord, S.
144
36,864
165
470,016


145
580,608
1
166
46,080
m
f
146
442,368 '
167
764,928

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169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Area (Ft.2)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)
129,024
(Heref
ord, S.D.)
189
571,392
691,200


190
101,376
46,080


191
635,904
239,616


192
55,296
479,232


193
184,320
27,648


194
92,160
359,424
1
f
195
239,616
276,480
(Hereford South-
196
46,080

west)



331,776


197
267,264
304,128


198
599,040
313,344


199
294,912
36,864


200
543,744
276,480


201
55,296
202,752


202
423,936
27,648


203
304,128
912,384


204
36,864
322,560


205
129,024
55,296


206
792,576
368,640


207
248,832
387,072
1
4
208
294,192
829,440

'
209
101,376
(Hereford South-
west)
(Hereford South-
east)

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APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Shaded
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.2)


Area No.
Area (Ft
210
294,912
(Hereford South-
230
221,184


east)



211
562,176


231
156,672
212
534,528


232
340,992
213
497,664


233
267,264
214
396,288


234
552,960
215
258,048


235
101,376
216
626,688


236
165,888
217
654,336


237
387,072
218
451,584


238
110,592
219
1,262,592


239
460,800
220
211,968

f
240
599,040
221
1,345,536
(Elm Springs
241
202,752


Southwest)


222
672,768


242
138,240
223
331,776


243
479,232
224
608,256


244
73,728
225
479,232


245
350,208
226
304,128


246
396,288
227
73,728


247
55,296
228
340,992

4
248
193,536
229
55,296
1

249
396,288
(Elm Springs
Southwest)
i
(Elm Springs)
t

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252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Area (Ft.^)
Shaded
Area No.
Area (Ft.^)
967,680
580,608
866,304
405,504
479,232
442,368
285,696
534,528
110,592
276,480
55,296
211,968
211,968
626,688
129,024
156,672
230,400
193,536
359,424
654,336
599,040
(Elm Springs)
T
(Dalzell North-
west)
f
271
1
,013,760
272

82,944
273

516,096
274

359,424
275

672,768
276

340,992
277

129,024
278

221,184
279

847,872
280

442,360
281

193,536
282

64,512
283

368,640
284

294,912
285

276,480
286

165,888
287

442,368
288
1
,059,840
289

488,448
290

866,304
291
1
,216,512
(Dalzell North-
west)
i
(Dalzell North-
east, S.D.)
f

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292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
APPENDIX 4 (Continued)
SURFACE AREA OF TAILING CONCENTRATIONS
Belle Fourche River
Area (Ft.^)
Shaded
Area No. Area (Ft.2)
82,944
654,336
101,376
728,064
396,288
350,208
230,400
571,392
866,304
1,198,080
184,320
635,904
884,736
129,024
193,536
645,120
101,376
294,912
(Dalzell North-
east, S.D.)
f

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