From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
Three million gallons a week of some of the West’s worst unchecked acid mine runoff — laced with lead, cadmium and fish-killing zinc — drain into headwaters of the Rio Grande River. A 270-gallons-a-minute flow from just one source, the collapsing Nelson Tunnel, led to a federal “environment disaster” Superfund designation in 2008.
But neither federal nor state environmental agencies did any cleanup work this year.
Or last year.
Or the year before. The federal cleanup, like most Superfund cleanups, is stuck in seemingly endless study.
And rather than rely on the government, which has documented tens of thousands of draining inactive mines, Creede is clinging to what residents hope will be a faster solution. They’re working for a comeback of mining, anathema at Colorado’s former mining towns that became elite resorts, but still much-loved here.
Creede has a unique opportunity because a nearby closed silver mine — the Bulldog — is connected to the Nelson Tunnel underground.
Mining engineers have determined that if Rio Grande Silver Inc., owned by mining giant Hecla, can restart silver mining at the Bulldog, the required pumping and treatment of pent-up wastewater would have the side effect of emptying the Nelson Tunnel and stopping the leak.
“If we want to get this cleaned up, and not have taxpayers pay for it, we should be encouraging mining, not prohibiting mining,” said Zeke Ward, chairman of the Willow Creek Reclamation Committee, a local watershed group.
