Is water contaminated by "yellow boy" dangerous to humans?

Question

When Backpacking in mining country I sometimes encounter "yellow boy," but I cannot find information on the risks of filtering/treating water contaminated by it. Further, it is only obvious in larger streams between ridges--not in the smaller streams in hollows from which I usually acquire water.

Answer 1

From what I have been able to find, yellow boy is acidic and sometimes contains toxic heavy metals.  They have found that filtering and treating the water is effective, but expensive.  Instead, they are creating wetlands, allowing the contaminants to settle out of the water.

"Many acid rock discharges also contain elevated levels of potentially toxic metals, especially nickel and copper with lower levels of a range of trace and semi-metal ions such as lead, arsenic, aluminium, and manganese. In the coal belt around the south Wales valleys in the UK highly acidic nickel-rich discharges from coal stocking sites have proved to be particularly troublesome."

Ion exchange

Cation exchange processes were investigated as a potential treatment for ARD. Not only would ion exchangers remove potentially toxic heavy metals from mine runoff, there was also the possibility of turning a profit off of the recovered metals. However, the cost of ion exchange materials compared to the relatively small returns, as well as the inability of current technology to efficiently deal with the vast amounts of mine discharge, renders this solution unrealistic at present.

Constructed wetlands

Constructed wetlands systems have shown promise as a more cost-effective treatment alternative to artificial treatment plants. A spectrum of bacteria and archaea, in consortium with wetland plants, may be used to filter out heavy metals and raise pH. Anaerobic bacteria in particular are known to be capable of reverting sulfate ions into sulfide ions. These sulfide ions can then bind with heavy metal ions, precipitating heavy metals out of solution and effectively reversing the entire process.

Interestingly enough, T. ferrooxidans - the very bacteria which appears to be the problem - has also been shown to be effective in treating heavy metals in constructed wetland treatment systems.

Only recently have scientists accepted that acid-mine drainage is a geomicrobial phenomenon. Mining activities expose vast volumes of subsurface rocks and minerals to air and water. Surface disposal of mine waste exposes the sulfur and iron minerals contained in the waste rock to the atmosphere. Both sulfur and iron provide sources of electrons to chemolithotrophic bacteria to “feed” their growth and create acid-mine drainage through a complex web of microbially mediated chemical processes. The release of these contaminants into natural waters, particularly toxic heavy metals, is a widespread problem in areas with a history of coal or metal mining.

Answer 2

Yellow boy is acid mine drainage.  The water is generally slightly neutralized by the time the iron pops out, but it still is usually not in a good pH range for drinking.  In addition, iron is just the most common heavy metal-there are a lot of nasty other metals that are still in solution.  I wouldn't drink it myself.

I know too much about water geochemistry and acid mine drainage to even consider it.  I doubt it has an acceptable taste either.

Answer 3

'Yellow Boy" generally refers to dissolved iron in

acidified mine waste water.

This can't be filtered.

The iron won't hurt you, but other disolved metals

might well be toxic.

You only see the precipitated salts which appear as the acidity decreases.

Those 'smaller streams' might be uncontaminated,

or might be more acidic and thus carry a higher

burden of dissolved metal.

Is your filtration cartridge rated to remove heavy metals?