Tainted water is being contained in Redwell Basin

Temporary spigot should hold until permanent fix in October

The spigot that the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (CDRMS) installed on the pipe projecting contaminated water from an artesian well in the Redwell Basin on the northwest side of Mt. Emmons is holding.

A CDRMS team hiked up to the pipe on Tuesday, August 6 and found the stainless steel valve to be holding without any leaks. The inspection “went really well. I haven’t had a chance to look at the field data yet, but there was no leakage around it,” CDRMS reclamation specialist Tara Tafi said. “But that’s a temporary solution and we’re pretty sure it will hold until we get a permanent fix on it in October.”
Last year, Tafi threaded a one-inch stainless steel pipe into a bore hole that had been left by a mining operation decades ago. The bore hole had spewed heavy-metal laden water with a pH of around 3.8, which is about as acidic as orange juice.
As a result of the hole, the surrounding drainage has been on the receiving end of heavily contaminated water that has altered the ecosystem and affected the streams flowing from the basin into Slate River. CDRMS is looking at several methods of closing off the bore-hole permanently. That work should start this fall.