"In the Spring of 2017, a large flood hit the Meramec River basin including a tributary of the Meramec River, the Big River. The Big River drains Missouri's Old Lead Belt, a historic lead mining region which, for a period, was the global leader in lead production. As a result of its history of lead mining and the local storage of mining wastes the Big River and its surrounding floodplain are contaminated with lead in soils and river sediments.

My project was to digest small samples of flood sediment (from several locations and many times during the flood) in acid and perform elemental analysis of the liquid digests. These analyses allow us to assess suspended lead transport from the Big River into the Meramec River and its floodplain. At the time of this writing, analysis is ongoing, and no conclusions can be reached."