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`Ihe larger meat packing houses are located in Denver and are con- <br />g <br />netted to municipal sewerage. Six smaller establishments near Denver <br />but outside the corporate limits discharge about 12,000 population <br />equivalents to streams. <br />Five of the six petroleum refineries in the Basin are located in <br />the Denver area and four of the five discharge to natural drainage. All <br />five maintain oil-water separators for the recovery of oil from plant <br />wastes. Two refineries provide holding ponds. Expansion of present oil <br />refinery capacities, now in progress, will increase the estimated 14,000 <br />population. equivalents presently discharged to streams. Improved oper- <br />ation of existing separators is desirable. Inadequate housekeeping at <br />some refineries permits extensive leakage and spills, The Continental <br />Oil Company at Denver has recorded the presence of lead in the Burlington- <br />O'Brian Ditch in a concentration greater than 0.7 ppm. The Frontier <br />Refinery at Cheyenne appeared interested in excluding its wastes from <br />Crow Creek, :inch cooperative action is required if the wide variety <br />of organic and inorganic wastes from oil refineries j.,s to be controlled. <br />Various industrial pollutants reach the Burlington O'Brian Ditch <br />in the Denver area. A large paper mill in the Denver area discharges <br />its wastes to Sand Creek after minor treatment., <br />Much of the silt which reaches our waterways cannot reasonably <br />be avoided, i4ountain torrents cascading over rocky stream beds erode <br />0 <br />material which is carried by the flowing waters. However,, other 'sources <br />of silt resulting from mining,, ore processing, potato washing and,, to <br />some extent, poor land management practices, can be controlled. <br />Additional work is necessary to evaluate the effect of wastes <br />from coal mining, placer gold. dredging, and ore processing mills, <br />Present stream pollution results from the disposal of wastes which con- <br />tain in solution objectionable chemicals as carbonates, chlorides, <br />sulphates; suspended powdered inorganic constituents of the processed <br />ores; and silt from dredging operations, The discharge of "tailings" <br />to Basin streams has been recognized as objectionable for many years, <br />and some control of this poll -ut.]X.,)n has been attempted, Most mills <br />employ ponds to settle out the "tailings." In the Clear Creek Sul>- <br />basin, the discharge of 200 gallons per minute from a large mine drain <br />near Idaho Springs had the following characteristics (South Platte <br />Report 1950); <br />Copper (Cu) /+4 ppy" - <br />iron (Fe) 348 pgm - <br />Lead :(Pb) 09125 ppl-11. <br />Hardness 12,000 ppm. <br />PH 2�5 <br />Additional pollution results from old tailing dumps eroded by storm <br />runoff and high flows, <br />Two of the four railroads in the Denver area have initiated plans <br />for waste treatment facilities. The Denver City Health Department has <br />been active in developing this cooperative program which would reduce <br />wastes discharged to streams in metropolitan Denver, and enable the <br />railroads to reclaim oil for reuse. <br />27 <br />