Denver • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take the first major steps this summer to clean up wastewater flowing from dozens of old mines at a Superfund site in southwestern Colorado, officials said Thursday.
The work includes dredging contaminated sediment from streams and ponds, diverting water away from tainted mine waste piles and covering contaminated soil at campgrounds.
This summer's work is aimed at reducing the volume of toxic heavy metals that escape from mining sites and into rivers while the EPA searches for a more comprehensive solution under the Superfund program.