Feds scramble to prevent massive flood in mining town {Leadville, CO} (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- It could be a month or two before work begins to ease the threat of a catastrophic flood in a historic mining town, officials say.

More than a billion gallons of water contaminated with heavy metals is trapped in a tunnel in the mountains above the town of Leadville and threatening to blow.

Environmental Protection Agency officials are scrambling to find a contractor to pump water from the tunnel, and more than $4.5 million to pay for the project, said Stan Christensen, remedial project manager for the federal agency.

Lake County officials declared a state of emergency for fear that melt from record snowfall could add to growing pressure in the tunnel and cause a blowout that would flood the town and contaminate the Arkansas River.

"It could come out, we just don't know where," county Commissioner Carl Schaefer said earlier. "We're seeing changes and we're very concerned. We're not crying `Chicken Little' here."
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/20/mining.town.ap/index.html

[itsrobert]

1. A billion gallons?

wow

[aquart]

2. And no way in hell to decontaminate that water?

What happens if the Arkansas River is contaminated with heavy metals? This is a tap water source? Irrigation? How bad the damage? How wide the loss?

[DCKit]

3. "Teh Mine is Falling! Teh Mine is Falling!"

"...crying "Chicken Little.""? Jeebus.

[eleny]

4. It was designated to be a superfund site some time ago

Your snarkiness is not even cute.

[NNadir]

5. I've been in that town. The whole time I was afraid to breathe.

A similar case is the ski resort of Telluride.

The hills over looking that town are slag heaps of old gold and silver mines.

Interestingly enough, there is a subset of people who are interested in tellurium, a pretty toxic substance, for making solar cells.

One of the side products of lead mines in Colorado is cadmium. Cadmium, a favorite solar cell (and other electronic waste) element is also popular, of course, for batteries.

For years sheep who drank water from the Platte River would sometimes get sick and die from the cadmium in the river.

[jimlup]

6. Downriver...

Er eh yeah, at the moment I'm staying in Leadville until this friday.... :o