From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
[Melissa Wolfe is] the assistant project manager of the Lake Fork Watershed Working Group, which is coordinating the cleanup in one of the old mining districts near Leadville with several state and federal agencies. “By working with the agencies, I’m able to do some hands-on work, and then share that information at several levels,” Wolfe said…
The Sugarloaf Mining District was heavily mined and logged from the 1880s-1920s. While the miners are long gone, the tunnels left behind drain water that is acidic and often contains elevated levels of heavy metals such as cadmium, copper or zinc. The Lake Fork drains into the Arkansas River, and it contains Turquoise Reservoir, the storage vessel of much of the water that is brought into the river basin through transmountain diversions. Blockages in the old tunnels can lead to water seeping out of the mountainsides in unpredictable places. Water flowing on the surface through old tailings piles can leach out harmful minerals as well…
The Lake Fork group has taken a different path [than the EPA cleanup of California Gulch]. The releases from the mining district have not been as dramatic, and the drainage enters the Arkansas River downstream of Leadville. The cooperative approach appears to be working, and could be a model for other watershed efforts, Wolfe believes. “We’re in the process of learning where the equilibrium is between cleaning up and preserving what this town (Leadville) was built on,” Wolfe said.
More Arkansas River basin coverage here.