Brief by Central Staff
Environment – April 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
To put it mildly, the Environmental Protection Agency made itself less than popular when it started cleaning up around Leadville years ago. That may explain why Creede wants some help from the EPA — but with strict limits on where the EPA works.
Creede and Mineral County want help with the waste rock pile at the Commodore Mine, which is unstable, and with the Nelson Tunnel, which drains five old silver mines into Willow Creek, a tributary of the Rio Grande. Tunnel outflow contains cadmium, lead, zinc, aluminum, and copper — none of which is good for aquatic life.
During the past eight years, local voluntary efforts have reduced pollution from the old mining district. But although a federal “good Samaritan” law has been proposed, it hasn’t passed, so whoever tackles the pollution from the Nelson Tunnel could be held liable for its effluents. Thus the request for the EPA to consider the tunnel and the Commodore pile for Superfund listing and funding.
But that’s as far as it should go; Gov. Bill Ritter’s letter of support to the EPA said that an expansion beyond the tunnel and rock pile “would be unacceptable without community involvement and acceptance.”
An EPA decision might come by fall. One factor will be the level of risk, and there may be a way to keep water from entering the old mines that feed the tunnel, and thereby avoid the need to build a treatment plant.
