A clogged World War II-era mining tunnel near Leadville is an accident waiting to happen, and has been for some years.
If the pressure in the tunnel increases and it blows, as has been the worry, it would spew toxic runoff into the town and the Arkansas River. Efforts to resolve the situation have been tangled in a dispute over which government agency has the responsibility to deal with it.
That’s why we’re glad to see movement in Congress on the issue. Bills sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn would make clear the Bureau of Reclamation’s responsibilities to deal with the Leadville tunnel.
In a congressional hearing Wednesday, Lake County Commissioner Kenneth Olsen submitted testimony detailing the tunnel’s long and troubled history.
The 11,299-foot tunnel was an emergency effort during the war to drain water so zinc, lead and manganese could be mined. Forty years later, the area, rife with mining waste, was designated a Superfund site.
Olsen asked the Senate subcommittee to require that the Bureau of Reclamation have responsibility and authority to maintain the tunnel and treat contaminated water.
The bills would do that, and it would be good public policy to see them advance.
But Michael Connor, the Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, also submitted a statement that raised objections to some of the tenets of the bill sponsored by Udall, S. 3404.
Connor said he was concerned the bill would give the bureau clean-up responsibility for portions of the site it doesn’t now have responsibility for.
He took issue with some of the remedies suggested, and said the bureau believes a blowout is highly unlikely. Connor concluded by saying the administration doesn’t believe the bill is warranted at this time.
We thought that was an odd position for the bureau to take since Connor’s boss, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, once thought the basic idea was a very good one. When Salazar was Colorado’s U.S. senator he pushed for legislation that would make the Bureau of Reclamation clearly responsible for elements of the tunnel and contaminated water. The bureau objected to that bill as well.
Connor told us on Thursday the situation has improved significantly since Salazar pursued remedies for the leaky tunnel, and he attributed many of the advances to his boss.
He also said he believed there was plenty of room for the legislation to be modified so that the bureau’s concerns would be addressed without compromising the goals that Udall and others were pursuing.
From a public policy standpoint, we think that would be a fine outcome. We look forward to seeing that sort of cooperation in addressing the Leadville situation.
If the Bureau of Reclamation were to get on board, maybe then Leadville residents and everyone who relies on the nearby Arkansas River for drinking water would have a better shot at seeing this mess cleaned up or at least safely contained.
