From The Denver Post (Bruce Finley):
Colorado mountain residents hardest-hit by the EPA-triggered Gold King Mine disaster say they’d like to make Silverton a research hub to find a better way — beyond building water treatment plants — to deal with thousands of mines leaking toxic acids.
Since August, the Environmental Protection Agency has relied on a temporary plant to remove millions of tons of metals sludge draining from the Gold King — muck from a 500-gallon-per-minute flow that won’t reach the Animas River. Running it costs taxpayers $16,000 a week.
And permanent treatment plants here and at thousands of other draining inactive mines around the West would cost billions. Beyond construction, operating costs can top $1 million a year.
Of course, the EPA must treat Gold King discharges for now, Silverton town administrator Bill Gardner said, but perpetual water treatment “may not be the longterm solution.”
Gardner advocated harnessing high science to map out underground terrain in detail, then control drainage using sophisticated plugs and sensors in tunnels.
“We can make lemonade out of lemons,” potentially bringing non-tourism business Silverton needs — and a widely applicable solution.
“We’re trying to be stewards of this watershed. This is the West. Water is precious out here. We get that big picture,” he said. “And right now we need to deal with this huge ticking time bomb around us: these leaking mines. We need to look at a holistic approach focused on inner mountain flows of water.”