Eagle Mine and River Cleanup By Kathryn Adams Environmental Policy 333 December 2006

History  The Eagle Mine opened in 1880’s for gold and silver mining  Working mine until 1984, and left 80 millions tons of waste  Owned by Viacom, an international entertainment corporation, until December 2004 when Florida Developer Bobby Ginn bought the land  Made an EPA Superfund sight in 1986  $80 million dollars has been spent since 1986 to clean the site up

The Problem  Waste, mostly toxic Zinc, from the mine is now leaking into the Eagle River  It has killed most insect and fish species  Viacom thinks the cleanup of Zinc is done and they want to end the cleanup

The opposing sides  Trout Unlimited and The Eagle River Watershed Council want Viacom to keep paying for the cleanup  Viacom and the Ginn Company think the river is clean enough, because the zinc levels are down and some fish species have returned to the river

Actions Taken  Viacom constructed a water treatment plant to clean the contaminated water  Trout Unlimited and other local interest groups are trying to educate locals about the problem so more people will get involved with the cleanup process

Conclusion  Trout Unlimited and the EPA formed an initiative called to Good Samaritan Initiative to allow 3 rd parties to get involved in abandoned mine cleanup without taking on any legal responsibility  Colorado Senators Allard and Salazar proposed the Cleanup of Inactive and Abandoned Mines Act in early November. This will allow the same thing as the Good Samaritan Initiative  A hearing with the Colorado Water Quality Commission will be held on December 12, 2006