Federal officials have set aside $1.5 million for a short-term fix to the potentially catastrophic buildup of contaminated water in a blocked mine-drainage tunnel above Leadville.
Robbie Roberts, the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional director, said agency higher-ups approved use of the money Thursday. The funds will be used to draw down more than 1 billion gallons of metals-contaminated water trapped in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel.
State and local officials fear the pressure from that water — which is apt to only grow as the area’s voluminous snowpack melts this spring — could cause a blowout in the tunnel that would destroy homes, pollute the Arkansas River and put lives in peril.
Lake County commissioners met with U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, state lawmakers, and federal and state officials at the state Capitol on Thursday to discuss what is being done to solve the water buildup.
The meeting began with fireworks, when Commissioner Mike Hickman referred to the agencies at the meeting as “The Three Stooges” for not having taken action sooner on the drainage tunnel.
“They knew four years ago what the fix was,” he said. ” You’ve turned your back on us, and you need to turn toward us and make it right for us.”
Bureau of Reclamation regional director Mike Ryan, whose agency has faced the brunt of the criticism, bristled at Hickman’s statements later in the meeting.
“I take exception to the characterization of some of our efforts,” he said. “But taking exception doesn’t do a gol-darn thing to make anybody up there any safer. So I’m going to let that sit.”
Roberts said a permanent fix to the water buildup was proposed in 2005, but federal agencies had difficulty coordinating the solution’s implementation.
Now, he said, the agencies are looking at short-term fixes to quickly ease the danger. The first solution will get underway Wednesday, when crews begin pumping clean water out of the Gaw shaft in Leadville’s mining district, which officials hope will ease the pressure on the drainage tunnel.
It will take as long as 12 weeks for crews to drill new shafts and begin pumping contaminated water out of the drainage tunnel, Roberts said.
Hickman said later that he wants the pumping to begin sooner but is pleased that at least there is now a timeline for solving the crisis.
“I feel better,” he said after the meeting. “I think a lot of progress was made today.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068
