The McClelland Mine drains into Clear Creek just upstream from Idaho Springs – its waters laced with heavy metals that turn the creek acidic.
The mine is one of more than 1,100 abandoned mines in the Clear Creek watershed – which conservation groups and state agencies might clean up if they weren’t afraid they would become legally responsible for the mines forever.
A bill protecting such “good Samaritans” from liability could change this, federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen John son said Thursday.
“While these groups are ready to get to work, they are running into legal roadblocks,” Johnson said as he stood in front of the mine.
The Clear Creek Watershed Foundation used $120,000 to clean up a former mill site near the creek, where miners used cyanide and mercury to purify ore.
But Ed Rapp, president of the foundation, said it is reluctant to deal with the mine drainage – even though it has the money to do it.
“If you change the course, the chemistry or the quality of a source of pollution, you can be sued,” Rapp said.
Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Republican Wayne Allard and Democrat Ken Salazar, have sponsored a bill to limit liability from a wide range of environmental laws.
The Bush administration is offering another bill that limits liability under the Clean Water Act and the Superfund toxic- waste cleanup law.
Similar bills have been introduced in the past. This time with support from the president, a bipartisan congressional coalition and the Western Governors’ Association, the bill’s chances appear better.
“When the White House is behind it, that helps tremendously,” said Rep. Bob Beauprez, a Wheat Ridge Republican and the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
Colorado has more than 17,000 abandoned hard-rock mines, and drainage from those mines kills aquatic life and makes water treatment for municipalities more costly, said Carol Russell, an EPA technical adviser.
Clear Creek, for example, helps supply drinking water to Westminster, Golden, Northglenn and Arvada.
McClelland’s drainage flows clear over red rock, down the hillside toward the stream.
But the red rock is rust or iron sulfate, which turns the water into a mild acid that kills fish downstream.
Rapp said his group wants to take on these small abandoned mines and “get in the nooks and crannies.”
Some environmental groups, however, are critical of the Bush administration and the Allard-Salazar bills.
The Animas River Stakeholders, in Silverton, and Trout Unlimited, a national group, want changes to both bills.
Staff writer Joel Grostephan can be reached at 303-820-1201 or jgrostephan@denverpost.com.
