DENVER - More than 1 billion gallons of contaminated water — enough to fill 1,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools — is trapped in a tunnel in the mountains above the historic town of Leadville & Lake County Commissioners have declared a local state of emergency for fear that this winter's above-average snowpack will melt & cause a catastrophic tidal wave. The water is backed up in abandoned mine shafts & a 2.1-mile drainage tunnel that is partially collapsed, creating the pooling of water contaminated with heavy metals.
County officials have been nervously monitoring the rising water pressure inside the mine shafts for about 2 years. An explosion could inundate Leadville & contaminate the Arkansas River.
They are going to check for some way to reduce the pressure. Why didn’t they do something when they first noted it? It certainly wasn’t going to go away. I wonder if the people in the town were aware of this? When it happens, the rest of the country will be expected to help.
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