The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“The water coming out of there is pretty nasty…”
Those who have wandered by the old Standard Mine on a hike this summer probably have noticed some activity in the last few months. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to determine how best to treat contaminated water flowing from the old mine site.
The Standard Mine has been declared a Superfund site and the federal and state governments have made it a priority to try to clean up. The Standard Mine, about five miles west of Crested Butte, was privately owned and worked extensively in the 1950s until about September 1960. Sporadic mining occurred at the site between 1963 and 1966. It appears no mining activity took place at all after 1974.
Waste rock, tailings and acid rock drainage all contribute to contamination on the site. The EPA has been working since 2005 to clean up the area; in fact, most of the contaminated surface materials have been removed over the last six years. The agency is now focusing on the underground workings and how best to deal with the contaminated water coming from the mine.
The mine area drains into Elk Creek, which flows through the site. Elk Creek flows southeast to Coal Creek, which flows toward the town of Crested Butte. The municipal water intake is located on Coal Creek downstream of the Standard Mine. The primary contaminants of concern at the Standard Mine are cadmium, copper, lead, manganese and zinc.
“The EPA has determined the problems with the water and they are proposing a two-phase solution to clean up the water,” explained Coal Creek Watershed Coalition director Anthony Poponi, who also serves as the administrator for the Standard Mine Technical Advisory Group (SMTAG), a non-profit group overseeing the EPA’s activities. “The water coming out of the mine site is really nasty.”
Poponi said it’s been determined that water running between “Level Three and Level One” goes through a highly mineralized zone, where it becomes heavily contaminated. “So the EPA wants to essentially divert the water around the mineralized zone,” he said. “The idea is to plug Level Three so water from there won’t enter the mine workings and will stay relatively clean and find another way to exit the mine. That would reduce the water coming from Level One and it should be cleaner.”
“Level” indicates different locations of mining disturbance and is not used to mean they are all part of one interconnected mine.
Poponi said the EPA is looking for agency money to pay for the latest proposed improvements. They hope to have a commitment by next fall and do the extensive work in 2014.
The two main thrusts of the plan are to install a bulkhead somewhere in Level One and then treat the water through essentially a passive, manmade wetland. The bulkhead would allow the EPA to regulate the rate of water coming out of the Level One exit.
The water would then be treated through a bio-reactor. “Such bio-reactors have been shown to extract about 90 percent of most metals leaving Level One,” said Poponi. “But they have to figure out how much water needs to be treated and build the bio-reactor to an appropriate size.”
To determine the best and safest location for the bulkhead in the mine, the EPA is exploring the old tunnels and mine workings.
That is the work hikers are noticing in the area this summer.
“We feel pretty good about what they’re doing,” added Poponi. “But we are monitoring the situation and asking questions and we want to make sure everything is being thought through.”
The SMTAG is using a grant to pay for independent experts who evaluate the EPA proposals and comment on them for the local group.
The current work should take the EPA into September.
