Map of Known Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands only.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Jon Zander. [11] Since the Summitville Mine runs next to the Alamosa River, this drainage affected livestock, agricultural irrigation and wildlife habitat. EPA sends a team to look over the Gold King Mine in Silverton. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is responsible for surface water pollution in the mid-Atlantic region, as well. Hydrologic SciencesUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309-0450hydrogrd@colorado.edu 303-735-1882, University of Colorado Boulder© Regents of the University of Colorado

Much of this contamination has persisted for decades and is likely to continue given the impediments to cleanup that are present at most sites. There are 4.7 billion gallons of polluted water produced per year between these ten mines. The plant began treating water in April 1998 and recently was upgraded from a low-density lime precipitation process to a high-density sludge process in June 2013.[6]. Adit, Richmond Mine, Iron Mountain, California. Tech., v. 41, p. 2667-2672. Green filamentous algae grows in an AMD stream with a pH of 2.5.

EPA revises the estimate of the total amount of wastewater spilled from 1 million gallons to 3 million gallons. CWEST Participants: Kate Campbell, Blaine McCleskey, Diane McKnight, Kirk Nordstrom, Rob Runkel, Joe Ryan, Andrew Todd, Structures of the former Pennsylvania Mine in Summit County, Colorado. U.S. Government Accountability Office [USGAO] (2011) Abandoned Mines: Information on the Number of Hardrock Mines, Cost of Cleanup, and Value of Financial Assurances, Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, Committee on Natural Resources, House of Representatives. Drainage from the Pennsylvania Mine has been greatly reduced following the emplacement of two concrete bulkheads in the primary mine tunnel, leading to improvements in water quality downstream. Although water with negative pH may occur, it is rare to find it accumulating in amounts that you would be able to collect in a cup as shown above. The production of drainage with low pH and high dissolved metal concentrations can also occur naturally (acid rock drainage or ARD) through the weathering of pyrite and other mineral ores. Acid drainage with a pH of -0.7.

The third and final site is the Animas River, near Silverton, Colorado. In terms of the actual locations of abandoned mines in Colorado, most are located on federally managed land, either the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Forest Service (NFS). The subsequent Gold King Mine disaster in this very watershed illustrates the shortcomings of even the most organized efforts to mitigate environmental effects of abandoned mines. [6] Because of the high volume of acidic and metallic water flowing into a major water source for parts of the Denver area, many projects have been created to eliminate this issue. Learn what a tracer experiment is and how such experiments can provide us with information about metal transport in acid mine drainage streams. [16] Several existing federal programs can be tapped for funding the remediation of abandoned mines including the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) which provides money for sites designated Superfunds, and the Clean Water Act Grant Program. Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research450 UCBBoulder, CO 80309, Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community4001 Discovery DriveBoulder, CO 80303, phone: (303)-735-2495 | email: c-west@colorado.edu, University of Colorado Boulder© Regents of the University of Colorado Peru Creek, near Keystone, Colorado, is contaminated by the Pennsylvania Mine and other sources within the watershed (Runkel et al., 2013). This page was last edited on 7 June 2020, at 11:38. [11] In the early 1990s the state took over Summitville Mines with help from the EPA.

One project was the Argo Tunnel Water Treatment Facility, which focused on decreasing and eliminating the acidity and high levels of metal in the water.

[5] The South Platte watershed and river basin project is estimated to cost more than two million dollars in characterization, engineering, and reclamation.

Treatment of acid mine drainage is listed as one of the state's Top 10 winnable battles in gaining clean water. As such, additional, more expensive efforts may be needed for long-term, year-around improvement in water quality.

Shortly after they started, pressure overwhelmed the blockage and the water began flowing downstream into the San Juan River and Animas River. It is by no means complete, as worldwide, several thousands of such sites exist. The reddish coloring is due to iron oxide precipitates and the whitish coloring is due to aluminum oxide precipitates.

Completed construction of new water treatment plant. As such, AMD represents a wicked problem that is not amenable to clean, easy solutions (Lund, 2012).

Despite these actions, low-flow water quality is virtually unchanged (Runkel et al., 2005). Photo by: Garrett Rue. Another complicating facet of acid mine drainage from abandoned mines is the downstream impacts, which affect myriad stakeholders. CWEST Participants: Kate Campbell, Blaine McCleskey, Diane McKnight, Kirk Nordstrom, Rob Runkel, Joe Ryan, Andrew Todd Mine Waters: Acidic to Circumneutral. Water Resource Planning Management, v. 138, p. 193-195. This list includes both mines producing acid mine drainage and river systems significantly affected by such drainage. Red Mountain Creek near Ouray, Colorado, for example, is acidic and metal rich (pH < 3.5) due to natural sources and historical mining activity. Argo Tunnel ceased production after a mining disaster in 1943, in which 4 miners died because of a large volume of naturally impounded water flooding the area they were in. The sulfuric acid causes leaching of iron, manganese, lead, copper, zinc and cadmiumfrom the rock it interacts with.

[19] In 2016, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) organized a $300,000 project, in conjunction with the Colorado Geological Survey, to inventory Colorado’s abandoned mines and prioritize each site’s reclamation according to current or potential environmental and human health impacts.

New Mexico lifts ban on use of private wells stemming from the Animas River Valley. Kimball, B.A., et al., 2007, Quantification of metal loading by tracer injection and synoptic sampling, 1996-2000: USGS Professional Paper 1651, p. 417–495. While the intent of this project is merely to inventory the abandoned mines, the report will be a valuable asset if and when more funds become available for remediation. The Animas River reopens to boaters. Mine drainage can be high-quality similar to natural waters or contaminated by leftover materials.

Policy makers sought to formalize a process to identify, prioritize, and fund the reclamation of abandoned mines via the Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act of 2015 (HMRRA). Approximately 19,000 are located on NFS land[15] with an additional 3,400 abandoned mines on BLM land. [8] On average, about 850 pounds of dissolved metals are released from the tunnel each day.

These impediments include a dearth of funding for cleanup, inflexibility within the Superfund program (Gustavson et al., 2007), the perpetual nature of AMD, antiquated mining laws, mixed and/or uncertain land ownership, and a lack of premining data for the development of cleanup goals. Despite this progress, draining mine tunnels continue to result in elevated metal concentrations that persist for miles downstream. The HMRRA never made it out of committee in either the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources[18] or the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Many of the mines were abandoned when regulations did not exist concerning the rehabilitation of the mine’s land. The Snake River in Colorado. Complete contaminant source collection structures. Durango begins testing the water in the Animas River. Plans were created to clean up the area and mitigate the environmental damage. USGS and INSTAAR scientists are collaborating on a variety of research topics including studying the implications of climate change for AMD/ARD streams and remediation efforts, characterizing AMD sources and working with stakeholders to develop remediation strategies for a Colorado river basin, and studying AMD geochemistry and microbiology that could help us understand processes on the planet Mars. This new process of mining also exposed large volumes of previously oxidized sulfides that affected groundwater. From BLM AML Inventory website.

One example is the Animas River Stakeholders Group, or ARSG, which comprises government agencies, citizen groups, and private entities – mostly mining corporations. In recent years, abandoned mine drainage has led to major environmental events, such as the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill.. Colorado has ten mines with active water treatment.

Tailings piles near Keystone, Colorado. After this process, gold is extracted from the bottom and processed. Drainage from open-pit mining often has a pH below 3 and high to extreme concentrations of metals. Tailings piles are the waste soils that remain once mineral ores have been processed. High levels of metals released to streams from acid mine drainage can harm fish and aquatic ecosystems. The EPA has calculated that 40 percent of river headwaters in the West are impaired by acid mine drainage. The high volume of acidic and metal-laden water quickly turned the Animas River toxic, with a bright orange appearance. Efforts have historically been funded by a combination of these available sources and coordinated by multiple agencies.

With high concentrations of metals as well, these massive sulfide deposits when exposed to both air and water through mining have produced some of the worst acid mine drainage (AMD) in the world (USGS webpage, Environmental Efffects of Iron Mountain, 2013). [7] The main purpose of the tunnel was for transporting ore out of tunnel and onto trains. A blockage in one of the emptying pipes created a build up of pressure and acidic water over time. Privacy • Legal & Trademarks • Campus Map, Center for Water, Earth Science and Technology, College of Engineering and Applied Science, Climate Change and Natural Acid Rock Drainage in the Upper Snake River, Colorado, Iron Mountain Mine, California, Superfund Site, Arctic and Boreal Biogeochemistry and Hydrology, Natural Organic Matter-Metal Interactions. Remedial activities conducted to date include removal of mine waste and tailings, regrading and revegetation of mine wastes left in place, and installation of hydrologic controls that direct meteoric water away from contaminated areas. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment treats nearly 98 million gallons of water a year from 5 mining sites alone. Acid mine drainage, which often contains dissolved metals, flows into streams, lakes and groundwater.

Modification to the existing water treatment plant. The wastewater reaches. Establishment of a healthy fishery downstream may remain elusive, however, due to natural sources of metals and acidity that emanate from the mineralized bedrock. [6], The Argo Tunnel was completed in 1910 for the purpose of mining gold during the Colorado Gold Rush.

[2] The abandoned mine at Summitville produced 235 million gallons of polluted water needing treatment in 2012 and is projected to produce even more in 2016 at 380 million gallons. This law would have created a fund specifically for the reclamation of abandoned mines and a new reclamation fee to be collected from current and future mining activities.