SUMMITVILLE MINE- Located 25 miles north of Del Norte, the old Summitville gold mine now functions as a water treatment facility. Many in charge at the facility hope to open up the land to recreational use.
Situated at 11,500 feet, Summitville Mine had a foreboding presence on a recent snowy day. The river running through its’ center burbled murky, orange liquid that stained the clean snow piled up on the banks. Some of the surrounding mountains were scarred by chunks taken out of them and lumps added back on.
After a cyanide spill in 1990, owners of the Summitville gold mine backed out and the mine became a Superfund site, taken over by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A superfund is a federal program that funds large-scale clean ups of toxic sites.
The river runs orange because varying amounts of iron, copper, cadmium, manganese, zinc, and aluminum run off of the old open pit mining site. The water treatment plant removes metals from the water so it can continue downstream to join the Alamosa river. This particular section of the Alamosa runs toxic with natural minerals. The treatment plant removes unnatural toxins from the industrial mining site.
“Our goal is to keep the clean water clean and the dirty water contained,” said Mark Rudolph, the project manager for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
The treatment facility is an industrial site that churns huge tubs of brownish orange water until the heavy metals fall to the bottom. It functions seasonally from April 1 until October 31.
By the end of the calendar year, the land the mine is on will be transitioned to full ownership by the county.
The challenge is restoring previously toxic alpine tundra to a point where it could be used for public recreation.
“Is $300 million enough? At what extent is clean, clean?” Rudolph said, with a worried expression. The superfund has put 300 million dollars into Summitville so far.
Once the land is free from major toxins, efforts to make the land seem more appealing lower the public perception that the Summitville site is a brownfield.
A brownfield is defined as a contaminated site with no future use. The EPA funds a program that gives Brownfield Grants to small communities, providing money to assess and clean up the land, allowing it to be revitalized. Brownfield grants were made available to superfund sites in August of 2016.
At the site of the Anaconda mine in Montana, an old smelter site with 300 acres of contaminated soil has successfully been transitioned into a 21 hole golf course. Brownfield grants helped fund smaller projects on the land.
Many at Summitville hope to follow in their footsteps.
“I would like to see winter and summer use,” Rudolph said, as the mine shuts down for the winter. Proposals contemplate use of the mine site for snowmobiling. Rudolph hopes to bring education to the site, perhaps creating a geology or archaeology summer camp in the mountains surrounding the treatment plant to teach people about the land. He spoke of building outdoor classrooms, leading hikes in the area, and welcoming more geologists to the site.
