Leadville Colorado Mega Flood?

The historic Wild-West mining town of Leadville, Colorado, is facing some interesting plumbing problems sponsored by Mother Nature this year. Scenic Leadville is known as the two-mile-high city, once sporting a population of 40,000 back in the 1880's when silver mining was at its peak in that rugged Rocky Mountain area.

Mother Nature is a busy lady; when people leave unnatural mining holes in her ground, she feels the urge to fill them up again with one of her available resources. In Leadville, abandoned mines are filling fast with water that includes hazardous materials leached from the surrounding soils and rocks.

Wild-West Leadville is ready to duke-it-out with Mother Nature over her placement of water in these abandoned mines, which can break through the side of the mountain, and flood the historic town below them. Leadville has recently developed a tourist industry around their historic buildings; they can't afford to let Mother Nature flood, or ruin, their tiny town of about 3,000 people.

Natural mountain water is currently backed-up in a labyrinth of old mine-tunnels that are connected to a collapsed 2.1-mile drainage tunnel. [CNN] Leadville fears that the old shafts and tunnel are too full to hold new water from this year's heavy snows; that any added pressure of new water will force all water out of its containment inside of the mountain above the town.

Old issues complicate these pressing new flood issues; it is not just a simple matter of draining water away from the town site.

By law, water traveling through abandoned mines before entering a river, must be cleaned of toxins gathered while in the mine, that can poison people, animals, plants, and fish. Leadville has a water treatment plant at the end of the partially collapsed drainage tunnel, before the currently seeping mine water enters the Arkansas River.

Leadville is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be one of the most polluted mine sites in the USA. The Arkansas River just went through a 40 million dollar clean-up project during the 1980's and 1990's. The clean-up project at this river enabled Leadville to promote a tourist industry.

Today, it isn't just flooding that Leadville is worried about; they need to secure a position making the government responsible somehow for any flood damage from toxic water inside of their mines. Leadville needs to secure Federal funding for any damages their mines cause, or they will no longer have tourism as an option for existence. Tourism is the industry keeping Leadville alive today.

Leadville water treatment plant processing the current water seepage out of the mines is showing that the water coming out is cleaner than it used to be. The cause for cleaner water is some kind of blockage stopping the terminally polluted water from escaping. Nobody seems to actually know what the addition of this year's snow water will do to the situation. The water will land on both sides of the blockage.

A possible EPA solution towards draining the mine shafts would be to drill a separate outlet release from both sides of the blockage, to allow cleaner water to process at a water plant different from terminally toxic water. This doesn't answer the question of what happens with a flash flooding of the water unexpectedly out of the mines; discussions are still underway.

The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and EPA would like to find a permanent solution on how to drain all water from the mine tunnels permanently and safely. Unfortunately they need further Federal approvalof funds to do this.[IEQTM][USGS] And, as we all know, Federal funds are not easily obtained for environmental issues right now due to the Iraq war budget.

The EPA has taken the stand that (Lake) county officials and the mine owners should take responsibility for the water treatment plant, and other related hazardous materials programs that fall outside of their current scope of responsibility.[CCWR] The county monitoring the water-levels in the mine tunnels over the last two-years is claiming that the EPA needs to take responsibility. It's a stand-off.

While the EPA has noted mountain seepages in places that have not seeped before, I find it hard to believe that this little town will actually flood. At any sign of a catastrophic flood, the water treatment plant and blocked drainage tunnel can be terminated to allow for all contaminated water to enter the river, instead of the town. This scenario is noted in today's CNN article; evacuation speakers are installed near the water plant.

Leadville is a sad situation, fighting a losing battle with Mother Nature. The town, county, and state do not have the money needed to clean-up all prior hazardous acts upon Mother Nature. The Federal government can't donate the funds because of prior, more pressing commitments.

And, the battle between Mother Nature and Leadville continues. Mother Nature sends the water, made toxic by man's doing; while Leadville dreams about passing the buck, and tourists. My guess is that Mother Nature might win this fight. Leadville is trying to be a tourist town, while they are actually a very toxic mine area. You simply can't fool Mother Nature into acting like a tourist.

Notes: Author holds current certification in Western Studies: Mining, Water, and Land Usage, as related to environmental issues in the Western United States.