DENVER—The Environmental Protection Agency says it may be mid-June before crews begin pumping tainted water directly out of a collapsed mine-drainage tunnel above Leadville.
A cave-in detected in 1995 in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel has caused more than a billion gallons of water to back up inside mine shafts that the tunnel was designed to drain.
Lake County officials fear that could lead to a blowout that would flood the town with contaminated water.
EPA officials initially hoped to have a well drilled by mid-May to pump water directly from the tunnel to a water treatment plant. They said Tuesday that problems getting the necessary equipment have pushed the schedule back.
EPA has been pumping water from a shaft connected to the tunnel.
