Mindy Erickson

Melinda Erickson
Adjunct Professor
she/her
[email protected]
612-624-1293
203 Kaufert Laboratory
Melinda's ORCID profile
Education
  • BS, University of Minnesota, 1990
  • MS, University of Minnesota, 1993
  • PhD, University of Minnesota, 2005 
External Affiliations

Areas of Interest

Hydrogeology, Groundwater, Contaminants and Pollution 

Biography

I am a Research Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, in the Twin Cities. I am a groundwater geogenic contaminant subject matter expert, and I have leadership roles on several national-scale interdisciplinary project teams. I have been working in the hydrogeology field since 1993, starting first in environmental consulting and then moving into groundwater-related research in 1998. I was a research scientist for the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency before moving to the federal government with USGS in 2009. My favorite research topic is occurrence, geochemistry, and mobilization of arsenic in natural groundwater systems. Developing models for the behavior of arsenic in the natural environment is elusive due to its complex associations with other metals and minerals, and the interplay of redox, pH, biogeochemistry, and hydrogeology. Even after 25 years of arsenic research, I continue to be fascinated.

Select Publications

Erickson, ML, CJ Brown, EJ Tomaszewski, JD Ayotte, JK Böhlke, DB Kent, and SL Qi. 2024. Prioritizing water availability study settings to address geogenic contaminants and related societal factors. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 196, 303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12362-2

Erickson, ML, AJ Tesoriero, LB Barber, CH Conaway, and JK Böhlke. 2024. Introduction to Water Quality Limitations of Beneficial Uses of Water in Knowledge Gaps and Opportunities. Chapter A of Tesoriero, AJ, ML Erickson, CH Conaway, EJ Tomaszewski, and CT Green, eds., Knowledge gaps and opportunities for understanding water-quality processes affecting water availability for beneficial uses: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2023–1086, 8 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20231086

Erickson, ML, DB Kent, JK Böhlke, K Belitz, and CH Conaway. 2024. Geogenic Water-Quality Impacts on Beneficial Uses in Knowledge Gaps. Chapter C of Tesoriero, AJ, ML Erickson, CH Conaway, EJ Tomaszewski, and CT Green, eds., Knowledge gaps and opportunities for understanding water-quality processes affecting water availability for beneficial uses: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2023–1086, 29 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20231086

Zhang, H, ML Erickson, D VanStempvoort, G Zhang, J Spoelstra. 2022. Groundwater Quality Sub-Indicator chapter (pp 673-709) in report “Environment and Climate Change Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2022. State of the Great Lakes 2022 Technical Report. Cat No. En161-3/1E-PDF. EPA 905-R-22-004.” Available at https://binational.net

Erickson, ML, SM Elliott, CJ Brown, PE Stackelberg, KM Ransom, JE Reddy, and CA Cravotta III. 2021. Using machine learning to predict high arsenic and high manganese at drinking water depths of the Glacial Aquifer System, northern continental United States. Environmental Science & Technology, 55(9), 5791-5805. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06740. 

Erickson, ML, SM Elliott, CJ Brown, PE Stackelberg, KM Ransom, and JE Reddy. 2021. Machine Learning Predicted Redox Conditions in the Glacial Aquifer System, Northern Continental United States. Water Resources Research. 57(4), e2020WR028207. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028207. 

Stackelberg, PE, K Belitz, CJ Brown, ML Erickson, SM Elliott, LJ Kauffman, KM Ransom, and JE Reddy. 2021. Machine learning predictions of pH in the glacial aquifer system, northern USA. Groundwater. 59(3), 352-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwat.13063.

Erickson, ML, ED Swanner, BA Ziegler, JR Having. 2021. Acute and chronic arsenic hazards in newly drilled domestic wells: short- and long-term drinking water quality implications. Journal of Hazardous Materials, Special Issue “Managing arsenic in the environment: From source to sink.” 414, 125409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125409.

Stetson, SJ, ML Erickson, J Brenner, EC Berquist, C Kanagy, S Whitcomb, C Lawrence. 2021. Stability of inorganic and methylated arsenic species in laboratory standards, surface water and groundwater under three different preservation regimes. 125, 104814. Applied Geochemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2020.104814. 

Degnan, JR, JP Levitt, ML Erickson, BC Jurgens, BD Lindsey, JD Ayotte. 2020. Time scales of arsenic variability and the role of high-frequency monitoring at three water-supply wells in New Hampshire, USA. Science of the Total Environment, V. 709 (2020) 135946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135946.

Erickson, ML, RM Yager, LJ Kauffman, and JT Wilson, 2019. Drinking water quality in the glacial aquifer system, northern USA, Science of the Total Environment. V 694 (2019) 133735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133735.

Erickson, ML, HF Malenda, EC Berquist, JD Ayotte. 2019. Arsenic concentrations after drinking water well installation: Time-varying effects on arsenic mobilization. Science of the Total Environment, 678. pp 681-691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.362.

Erickson, ML, SM Elliott, CA Christenson, and AL Krall. 2018. Predicting geogenic arsenic in drinking water wells in glacial aquifers, north-central USA: accounting for depth-dependent features. Water Resources Research. 54(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023106. 

Erickson, ML, HF Malenda, EC Berquist. 2018. How or when samples are collected affects measured arsenic concentration in new drinking water wells. Groundwater, 56(6), pp 921-933. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gwat.12643. 

Nicholas S, ML Erickson, LG Woodruff, AR Knaeble, MA Marcus, JK Lynch, and BM Toner, 2017. Solid -phase arsenic speciation in aquifer sediments: a micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy approach for quantifying trace-level speciation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta., 211, pp 228-255.