Remediation work to occur at abandoned Standard Mine site

EPA designates site as pilot study, streamlines clean-up process

Amid the wildflowers, clear rivers, smooth single tracks and white aspens, it can be easy to forget that Crested Butte and the surrounding areas have a past steeped in extraction and hard use.

Mining for coal and precious metals began regionally in the 1870s and in some cases continued for more than 100 years. Silver was the predominant metal sought, and there were three primary mine sites: the Standard Mine, the Forest Queen Mine and the Keystone Mine. Of these, Standard was the largest. The work that occurred there left a lasting mark on the land and the water, and in 2005 the mine was placed on the National Priorities List as a Superfund site.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the mining operations at the Standard Mine site created highly mineralized conditions that resulted in the mobilization and release of heavy metals into the surrounding environments. For the last several decades these heavy metals have been flowing into Elk Creek, then into Coal Creek, which runs through the heart of Crested Butte and provides drinking water for much of the town.
This summer, the EPA, working in partnership with the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition, the High Country Conservation Alliance and the Standard Mine Advisory Group, will take steps toward reducing the flow of those metals and mitigating the ecological damage caused by the operations and abandonment of the mine.
“A lot of the early years were spent sampling the site and gaining an understanding of the contaminants and the scope of contamination,” said EPA Superfund project manager Christina Progess. “That work was documented in the remedial investigation and feasibility study, and from there we were able to work with the local community to choose a final clean-up strategy, which we’ve been working to implement since 2011.”
According to Progess, that implementation will finally get under way this summer, thanks to government approval designating the site as appropriate for a remedial design/remedial action integrated management pilot study.
“Typically in the Superfund process there are two phases: first there is the investigation or remedial design, then the remedial action,” Progess said. “In abandoned mine cleanups, I’ve found it’s often difficult to do it in two steps. For the Standard Mine pilot study, the EPA has secured funding for an integrated approach that will streamline the cleanup process and help facilitate the project’s completion.”
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The Standard Mine site is one of only two sites in the nation approved for this type of integrated management, and Progess attributes the approval in part to the EPA’s strong working relationship with the local community.
“We really appreciate all the input that has come from participating groups,” Progress said. “We’re looking forward to working together for many years in the future.”
This summer’s work will focus on cleaning up the surface area at the site and conducting an assessment of the underground workings of the mine. Then, in 2015 work will begin to insert a bulkhead deep in the mine’s bowels that will serve to regulate the flow of contaminated water into the headwaters of Elk Creek.
“The flow out of the mine fluctuates seasonally,” said Steve Glazer, board president of the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition and member of the Standard Mine Advisory Group. “Having a steady rate of discharge helps with the concentration of metals in the creek. In the spring when snow starts melting, sampling has shown there is a slug of heavy metals that come out resulting in higher concentrations.
“The discharge comes into our watershed above our diversion point, but it is not a threat to human consumption,” continued Glazer.
Water quality throughout the basin has been tested repeatedly, and according to Glazer the concentrations of metals being produced by the mine do not exceed the municipal use standards, and are regularly shown to be one-third of the standards.
However that doesn’t mean the metals are benign. Aquatic life in the Elk Creek and Coal Creek are impacted by the mine’s discharge, which is above the maximum contaminant level for aquatic life as determined by the EPA.
“Aquatic life uses are the most stringent and that is what they are exceeding,” said Glazer. “I feel very comfortable with the fact that this situation is not a threat to our water supply, but it does impair aquatic life.”
The Standard Mine sits on about 10 acres of land in the Ruby Mining District of the Gunnison National Forest, 10 miles west of Crested Butte. According to the EPA, the contaminants of concern are primarily heavy metals with samples showing elevated levels of manganese, lead, zinc, cadmium, and copper.
For the last decade members of the community, led by the Standard Mine Advisory Group, have been working with the EPA to facilitate the clean-up and remediation of the mine site. It was the local community that invited the federal agency to the table, and the clean-up process has continued to be a collaborative endeavor that will ultimately succeed because of the partnerships that have developed.
“For the last ten years we’ve been sending all our sampling to the EPA lab,” said Glazer. “They created a grant program to provide funds to local stakeholders so that we could bring in technical experts to peer review everything the EPA is doing. They’re really working with us and reaching out to us.”
For more information about the Standard Mine visit the EPA website at http://www2.epa.gov/region8/standard-mine, or the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition site at http://www.coalcreek.org.