An Industry and Government Collaboration
Utah abandoned mine lands and watersheds multi-spectral imaging and analysis project
By Frederick B. Henderson, III, Ph.D., and Katherine Lanchance

AVIRIS Technology and Utah Abandoned Mine Lands
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL) and the US Geological Survey Spectroscopy Laboratory (USGS) began utilizing the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometry (AVIRIS) system for environmental investigations of mining contaminated watersheds in 1995. The AVIRIS system is used for mineral identification, geo-chemical mapping of sources, and movement of heavy metals-contamination in mining areas or mining impacted watersheds.
    During 1997, various state and federal land management agencies formed an inter-agency team to conduct an AVIRIS project in Utah for the screening evaluation of Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) areas. The primary purpose of this project is to expand and evaluate the future use of multi-spectral data, to identify, measure, map, and monitor the effects of mine waste releases on watersheds and other aquatic environments. As part of the site assessment and response planning activities for five Utah historic mining districts, the EPA contracted NASA-JPL to obtain 1.48 million acres of spectral data. The mining districts included Leeds Silver Reef, Marysvale-Tushar Mountains, Oquirrh Mountains, Park City/Alta, and Tintic. The USGS spectroscopy lab is processing the data and expects to finish mapping these areas in the year 2001.

Collaboration of Remote Sensing Technology Vendors and Stakeholders
Remote sensing technologies such as multi-spectral imaging and analysis are becoming recognized as an important evaluation tool to conduct ecosystem evaluation and environmental management. In 1997, as part of the Utah AML multi-spectral imaging and analysis project, EPA Region 8 encouraged private-sector remote sensing companies to participate by challenging the commercial community to demonstrate its capabilities in providing commercial multi-spectral data and analysis useful to the EPA and other interested agencies.
    As a result, the Utah Commercial AML Watershed Project was formed. Vendors and stakeholder participants obtain EPA Region 8 funded AVIRIS data and collaboration with the interagency team in exchange for presenting their results at a Public Results Conference in February 2000. This collaborative effort will help all the stakeholders to: 1) improve the understanding of the environmental application of multi-spectral data; 2) develop common and reasonable standards for the use of such detectors; and, 3) continue to verify and expand the reliability and use of multi-spectral imaging to environmental applications.

The Stakeholders and Their Involvement
To date, 18 commercial vendors and stakeholders are participating in the Utah Commercial AML Watershed Project. The first EPA Region 8 sponsored workshop of interested stakeholders was held at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality in Salt Lake City, Utah, in April 1998. The goal of the workshop was to frame the basis for the industry/government collaboration and encourage pro-bono vendor participation in evaluating the AVIRIS and vendor data, demonstrating their capabilities.
    In early 1999, EPA Region 8 and the USGS released the AVIRIS data. Gary Borstad & Associates, CASI/SFSI, and Earth Search Science, Inc., (ESSI)'s Probe-I have flown over three mining districts covered by AVIRIS. Borstad & Associates is teamed with Spectral International, Inc. (SII), Peters Geosciences, Asarco, Inc., Newmont Mining, Colorado School of Mines, UT DEQ, USDA-Forest Service, and Hendco Services. The SII-Borstad team has completed 4 weeks of fieldwork supported in part by a NASA Stennis NRA grant. ESSI and Farr View Consulting are working with ESSI's Probe-I 5-meter multi-spectral data and AVIRIS data. The Probe-I flew over Bingham Canyon, West Oquirrh Mountains, and the Tintic Districts.
    Other stakeholders are processing AVIRIS and commercial vendor data to demonstrate their data processing techniques. Six mining companies, despite the potential to discover environmental pollution and non-compliance situations, are participating in ground validation and interpretation of data. ISSI Consulting Group, Inc., and Hendco Services are coordinating all the vendor and stakeholder participation for EPA Region 8. A midpoint workshop was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in July 1999 to discuss vendor progress reports, common processing problems, and planning for the Public Results Conference in February 2000. Ball Aerospace is using its algorithms and AVIRIS data at Park City to produce mineral maps and evaluate bio-indicators of heavy metal or acid mobility. Earth Satellite Company is using proprietary algorithms to process AVIRIS data to map and interpret acid mine wastes and vegetation. SAIC is processing AVIRIS data from the Oquirrh Mountains and Park City Districts with proprietary spectral mixture based techniques and derivative analyses to monitor indicators of acid mine drainage and vegetation stress. TASC is working with AVIRIS and other Utah District data sets to evaluate data filtering, correction, and fusion algorithms. Tri-Space, working with Ball Aerospace's BAHAS architecture and Park City/Alta AVIRIS data, is evaluating its cost-effective atmospheric correction, geometric correction, spectral image fusion and registration, and material intensification procedures for a 48 hour turnaround service.
    Other participants are collaborating with the above data processors in various ways. Data Fusion is working with AVIRIS data to map soils and waste mineralogy characteristics. Asarco, Inc., Kennecott Exploration, Noranda Exploration, and Phelps Dodge Mining Co. (via Perry Remote Sensing) are evaluating the results from a mining company standpoint. Tintic Utah Metals is providing ground truth and calibration access to the Dragon Mine and the Tintic District to all interested vendors. Kennecott Exploration is assisting by providing local geologic background.

The Future of Multi-spectral Imaging Collaborations
The EPA is increasingly interested in multi-spectral and other advanced monitoring technologies to provide scientific data for use in ecosystem evaluation and environmental management. In addition to the Utah Commercial AML Watershed Project, the EPA is evaluating a variety of multi-spectral data research and regional initiatives. Specifically, EPA Region 8 is evaluating the use of multi-spectral data as a tool for preliminary screening of abandoned mine lands.
    The Utah Commercial AML Watershed Project and future collaboration projects will help industry and government better understand the capabilities and limits of multi-spectral technologies. By working together, the multi-spectral imaging community can establish standards for processing, calibration, and information extraction. Continued collaboration between commercial and government stakeholders will help validate multi-spectral information as reliable, repeatable, cost-effective, and acceptable to EPA and other federal and state regulatory and natural resource management agencies for measuring, mapping, and monitoring regulatory compliance and environmental management.

About the Author
Frederick B. Henderson, III, Ph.D., is the [position title] at Hendco Services. Katherine Lachance is the [position title] at ISSI Consulting Group, Inc.

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