Catastrophic Acid Mine Drainage Blow-out Threatens Leadville Colorado and Arkansas River System with 1.5 Billion Gallons of Toxic Water

Lake County officials have feared a catastrophic blowout of a blocked mine-drainage tunnel for years, but they declared a state of emergency only amid this winter's heavy snows and a recent revelation that federal officials share their concerns.

Metals-contaminated water already is seeping out of fissures and reaching the Arkansas River, officials say, and the risk is growing of a life-threatening flood and environmental disaster if the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel bursts.

"What were trying to avoid here is a catastrophe," county director of emergency management Jeff Foley said Thursday during an emergency conference call with state and federal officials. "That's why we're acting now instead of acting when there is a blowout."

(Are we really naive enough to believe, that over the next few centuries, the Arkansas River isn't destined to be contaminated by this mine?)

The concern is a 1.5 billion-gallon pool of acidic mine runoff, laced with toxic levels of cadmium and zinc, that is dammed behind cave-ins deep underground in the World War II-era drainage tunnel.

Water beneath the mining district has risen to 188 feet above the tunnel's water-treatment plant and is beginning to spill out in new springs, according to a memorandum by Jord Gertson of SourceWater Consulting.

In addition to reaching the Arkansas River — the site of a massive Superfund cleanup effort over the past 25 years — the untreated water threatens to contaminate Leadville's water wells, said County Commissioner Ken Olsen.

And with snowpack already at 160 percent of its average depth, the threat is probably only going to get worse during the spring runoff.
River was contaminated for miles

Ron Cattany, director of reclamation, mining and safety for the state Department of Natural Resources, noted that the river was contaminated for miles downstream after the last mine-drainage blowout in 1983, which prompted the Superfund designation.

Although county officials have raised red flags about the blockages since they were discovered in 2001, they didn't learn until last week that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shares their fears.

"We are concerned that an uncontrolled, potentially catastrophic release of water to the Arkansas River from the (tunnel) is likely at some point," EPA regional administrator Robert Roberts wrote in a November letter to regional director Michael Ryan.

EPA letter "heightened awareness"

The letter "validates" the county's chronic concerns over human safety and protection of the river, and it contributed to the declaration of an emergency, Olsen said.

"That has certainly brought to our attention a heightened awareness," he said. "The situation is no different today than it was yesterday, except the fact is, what we're trying to do here in Lake County is to address the prevention of some subsequent catastrophe."

Officials with the federal Bureau of Reclamation — which operates the tunnel — as well as the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers vowed Thursday to work with state and local entities to resolve the problem, beginning with a conference call today to review data, determine the actual threat and develop possible solutions.

Here is the full article.