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DENVER - It may be mid-June before crews begin pumping tainted water directly out of a collapsed mine-drainage tunnel above Leadville, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.
A cave-in detected in 1995 in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel has caused an estimated 1 billion gallons of water to back up inside mine shafts that the tunnel was designed to drain.
Lake County officials fear that could lead to a catastrophic blowout that would flood the town with contaminated water.
In February, the EPA said it would build a relief well into the drainage tunnel to pump water to a pipeline that would deliver it to a water treatment plant.
EPA officials initially hoped to have the well drilled by mid-May. They said Tuesday that the schedule was pushed back due to limited availability of large drilling rigs, which are in high demand in the oil and gas industry, and the need for custom-made equipment to drill the well.
"While EPA will continue to work diligently to find ways to accelerate the schedule for the completion of the relief well, our primary concern is getting this job done properly," said Robert E. Roberts, EPA regional administrator.
In the meantime, pumping has begun from the GAW Shaft a mile away from the tunnel in the hopes of reducing seepage. It's unclear whether pumping water from the shaft will significantly reduce water blocked in the tunnel.
The EPA said it has made progress on other parts of the project though. Over the last six weeks, it has been building a drill pad and a road to the site of the new relief well, procuring pipe for the pipeline, and clearing the pipeline route.
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On the Net:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/co/calgulch/mdresponse.html
A cave-in detected in 1995 in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel has caused an estimated 1 billion gallons of water to back up inside mine shafts that the tunnel was designed to drain.
Lake County officials fear that could lead to a catastrophic blowout that would flood the town with contaminated water.
In February, the EPA said it would build a relief well into the drainage tunnel to pump water to a pipeline that would deliver it to a water treatment plant.
EPA officials initially hoped to have the well drilled by mid-May. They said Tuesday that the schedule was pushed back due to limited availability of large drilling rigs, which are in high demand in the oil and gas industry, and the need for custom-made equipment to drill the well.
"While EPA will continue to work diligently to find ways to accelerate the schedule for the completion of the relief well, our primary concern is getting this job done properly," said Robert E. Roberts, EPA regional administrator.
In the meantime, pumping has begun from the GAW Shaft a mile away from the tunnel in the hopes of reducing seepage. It's unclear whether pumping water from the shaft will significantly reduce water blocked in the tunnel.
The EPA said it has made progress on other parts of the project though. Over the last six weeks, it has been building a drill pad and a road to the site of the new relief well, procuring pipe for the pipeline, and clearing the pipeline route.
---
On the Net:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/co/calgulch/mdresponse.html
