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<br />L<B>and<IB> <B>mine</B> <br /> <br />Page 3 of 20 <br /> <br />In January 1993, Galactic declared bankruptcy, turning the property over to <br />the state, which passed It to the EPA. By that time. Friedland had left the <br />company, moving on to make millions from a nickel mine in Canada. <br /> <br />Executive dreams of an empire <br /> <br /> <br />In 1996, the state and federal governments sued Friedland to recover more <br />than $150 million In cleanup costs. The state also is seeking about $40 <br />million to cover the cost of treating water at the site for the foreseeable <br />future. <br /> <br />US. District Court Judge Edward W. Nottingham is expected to set a trial <br />date later this year or early next year in the civil suit. <br /> <br />Separately, U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland may be considering a grand jury <br />investigation of Friedland that would consider possible criminal charges. <br />Although many of the documents refer to grants of immunity awarded former <br />company executives, Strickland will neither confirm nor deny an <br />investigation. <br /> <br />Two low-level workers at the mine each were sentenced in 1998 to six <br />months in jail and $20,000 in fines for violating federai clean water laws. <br /> <br />Friedland denies wrongdoing, arguing in court documents that while he <br />raised money to build and run the mine, the pollution was caused by failures <br />of engineering and equipment controlled by others in the company. <br /> <br />"I look forward to bringing this to trial," he said in an interview with the <br />Denver Rocky Mountain News last month. "I look forward to actually <br />exposing what actually happened here to the light of day." <br /> <br />But back in 1984, no one was thinkin9 about legal implications when <br />Galactic sought a mining permit. They were thinking about opportunities. <br /> <br />The economic boom of the 1970s had gone bust with the collapse of the <br />domestic oil industry. Office buildings stood vacant in Denve~s downtown. <br /> <br />And Galactic was dangling 100 jobs in a part of the state with double-digit <br />unemployment. <br /> <br />The Summitville disaster unfolded in several chapters. The Denver Rocky <br />Mountain News has pieced together the story from court documents, <br />interviews and sworn statements by key players to state and federal <br />officials. The story has never been fully told until now. <br /> <br />It begins with state officials in the mid-1980s, a time when mine regulators <br />felt overwhelmed. They had only six inspectors to monitor 1,500 mines. <br /> <br />So they were in no position to run background checks on a company that <br />offered to bring paying Jobs to the San Luis Valley, the poorest part of the <br />state even in good economic times, said Chips Barry, then assistant director <br />of the state Natural Resources Division and a member of the board that <br />granted mining permits. <br /> <br />"I don't think we knew anything about who these people were," Barry said. <br /> <br />In fact, no one, not even other Canadians, knew much about Vancouver- <br /> <br />http://www.denver-rmn.com/news/OS 07 smmt I.shtml <br /> <br />517100 <br />