A Canadian mining baron who paid $20.2 million to the state and federal governments for his role in Colorado’s Summitville mining disaster has withdrawn from a battle to build a mansion near Aspen in the path of an active debris flow.
Singapore-based billionaire Robert Friedland has indicated he no longer has an interest in the Celestial Land Co. project and that he’ll focus on a project in Asia instead, Celestial Land attorney Robert Fognani said.
Friedland’s former associates at Celestial will press on in Colorado, Fognani said.
Friedland couldn’t be reached for comment. Fognani declined to identify owners of Celestial, a foreign corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The prospect of Friedland returning irked environmentalists, who recall his company Galactic Resources Ltd.’s role at the cyanide open-pit Summitville Mine.
In 1992 the mine was abandoned and became a Superfund cleanup site that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates has cost more than $214 million.
Galactic Resources had a controlling interest in the mine.
State officials said Friedland paid the $20.2 million in a legal settlement to the state and federal governments and into a restoration fund.
“Bob should know people haven’t forgotten Summitville and his role in it,” said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.
The Celestial effort to build a mansion southwest of Aspen highlights a growing statewide challenge as housing spreads in high-profile mountain valleys.
Property owners increasingly push to build on land prone to avalanches and debris flows, say county and state officials.
Celestial plans a copper-sided mansion covering 15,000 square feet — the most a 2006 county cap allows.
The 35-acre site sits in a debris flow zone where slides occurred in 2001 and twice in 2007.
Colorado Geological Survey experts advised against building in the area.
“When you’ve got a wall of water and boulders, it’s very hard to know where it’s going to go and to design structures to mitigate that,” said Karen Berry, land use program manager for CGS.
“Debris flows can have tremendous force and quickly destroy anything in their path, including homes. Given the risks, we really don’t like to see people building in such areas,” Berry said.
There are no state land-use laws, leaving the decision to Pitkin County authorities. The county code, while prohibiting building in rock fall zones, “allows someone to develop in a debris flow area” if precautions are taken, said Suzanne Wolff, the county’s senior planner.
Celestial’s engineers and architects are consulting with state geologists prior to a Sept. 15 hearing, Wolff said.
Mitigation would be required, “and it certainly helps if you’ve got enough money to do it,” she said.
“People around here definitely recognize that the easy lots have been developed. You’re getting into the steep areas with more issues. It’s going to be more difficult to build on them.”
Former Aspen Mayor Rachel Richards, now a county commissioner, said “the stronger the evidence” of past debris flows, “the stronger ground the county will have to stand on” in reviewing the proposal.
Celestial plans to build a barrier designed to block debris flows. Neighbors have raised concerns that the barrier could deflect rock and mud onto their properties.
“We believe that the information we have presented to county planners demonstrates that there would be no impact associated with the proposed or projected construction project,” Fognani wrote in a letter to The Denver Post.
State officials are still seeking contractors to build a 1,600 gallons-per-minute water treatment plant at the Summitville Mine, using Recovery Act funding, to try to prevent more pollution of the Alamosa River, which flows into the Rio Grande.
Celestial does no mining here, nor does Friedland, who now runs Ivanhoe Mines, which has interests in a coal mine and is developing a gold and copper mine in Mongolia. He’s been listed as one of America’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.
“No, we can’t recover anything else from him,” said Mike Saccone, spokesman for the Colorado attorney general. “The settlement closed the door.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
