A $2.5 million effort to siphon water from a blocked mine-drainage tunnel in Leadville will be delayed a month until a custom drill bit can be manufactured, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now plans to drain as much as a half-billion gallons of water blocked underground in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel starting in mid-June.
“If they could drill that tomorrow, and if I could do something to make that happen, I would do it,” said Mike Hickman, chairman of the Lake County commissioners.
“But there is nothing I can do,” Hickman said. “I can’t yell. I can’t scream. I can’t get angry at the governor. I can’t do anything that is going to make this go faster at this point in time.”
Lake County officials declared an emergency in February after noticing new seeps developing in the historic mining district and fearing a blowout of the tunnel, which has suffered a series of cave-ins since 2001.
Although the EPA quickly began draining a second flooded mine shaft — sending an estimated 28 million gallons of relatively clean water down the Arkansas River — the real work will be pumping the underground pool of water laden with toxic metals to a federal Bureau of Reclamation treatment plant.
The agency announced that a Kansas company, Layne Christensen, won the $1 million sub-contract to drill to the tunnel and install the pump.
The effort is awaiting the arrival of a special 21-inch drill bit and the heavy equipment needed for the digging.
“While EPA will continue to work diligently to find ways to accelerate the schedule for the completion of the relief well, our primary concern is getting this job done properly,” regional administrator Robert Roberts said in a statement.
The threat of a blowout fueled by runoff from the winter’s heavy snow has dozens of residents of the East Fork Village mobile-home park living uneasily just outside the mouth of the tunnel.
Some local officials are worried the Arkansas River could be flushed with toxic metals, undoing 25 years of cleanup efforts.
Hickman said he is impressed by the work being done, noting that he saw four bulldozers going full steam to dig a pipeline trench Friday afternoon.
“I think they’re doing everything they can,” he said. “We sure hope that they get it done before it possibly blows.”
Steve Lipsher: 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com
