Formation of freshwater Fe-Mn coatings on gravel and the behavior of 60Co, 90Sr,and 137Cs in a small watershed

Iron and manganese oxide coatings are actively forming on stream substrates in the White Oak Creek watershed in East Tennessee. Although oxidizing conditions are required for Fe-Mn oxide precipitation, coatings accumulate only if dissolved iron and manganese exceed 50 μg/L. Below this, coatings are lost by abrasion as fast as or faster than they form. Annual rates of formation of 3 mg/g on substrate (gravel) were observed. Manganese is dissolved from coatings between Eh values of 100 to 300 mV and below 1 mg/L dissolved O₂ at pH 6.5 to 7.5. Iron oxides can be precipitated under these conditions.Uncontaminated gravels with oxide coatings (composed of illite, quartz, and feldspar) adsorbed radionuclides rapidly from waters below MPC (Maximum Permissible Concentration) levels. Contaminated gravels placed in uncontaminated waters lost ⁶⁰Co by abrasion in oxidizing conditions and by dissolution of manganese coatings in reducing conditions. Exchangeable ⁹⁰Sr was completely lost after one month whereas nonexchangeable ⁹⁰Sr was lost more slowly; ¹³⁷Cs was totally retained by the gravels. Gravels such as these can be used to monitor the radionuclide content of waters in the environment.