HYDRO25897 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Page 4 Purgatoire River Fish Ki11 Report 03/24/88 100 meters below the effluent point of Ciruela Canyon. I requested that he send me all information from his samples as soon as they were processed. When I told Stout that we had approximately 2.5 miles of Brown Trout kill on the Purgatoire River he said he didn't see any way that the kill could be related to the mine. I advised Stout the investigation would continue. I telephoned Melby and told him of the call from Stout and that they had been alerted to the fish kill. I also returned a telephone call to South- east Region Information and Education Specialist, Eric Lundberg, with details of Che kill and investigation for preparation of a press release. At 1:30 on March 8 I met Gary Soldano and Las Animas/Huerfano County Health Department official, Ed Cruz, in Trinidad and traveled to the kill site. We stopped a[ the Purgatoire River Bridge above Weston and Soldano took pictures of the dead fish visible on the east side of Highway 12. We then stopped at the effluent site and the Golden Eagle Mine. A[ the Colden Eagle Mine we met with Senior Mine Engineer, Tony Augustine, and CORE Laboratory Chemist, John Bangeman and his assistant, Virgil Booth. Soldano requested water samples from various locations at the Golden Eagle Mine with the agreement to split samples at the request of Augustine. This was done so Bangeman could run a parallel test series. We sampled a holding pond north and west of the mine where Soldano took a pH only. We then went to the sediment ponds where flood water from the mine was discharged. These sediment ponds are in Ciruela Canyon and water from the lower sediment pond was being released directly into Ciruela Canyon. The water above this point in Ciruela Canyon was barely a trickle and appeared to be coming from snow melt. There are three sediment ponds at this site. We then went to a pumping station above the sediment ponds where Augustine advised floculants were pumped into the sediment ponds. We also examined the sewage treat- ment facilities and attempted to follow the pipe from the treatment site. At the base of the hill below the treatment plant it appeared the pipe had been broken by heavy equipment and there was water covering the pipe. Because of this Soldano was forced to sample the discharge directly at the filtration point. Soldano indicated there may be some problem a[ the treatment facility but would have to check the mine permit before commit- ment. At that time we returned to the Golden Eagle Mine office where Soldano gave Augustine a copy of forms used throughout the day. I arranged to meet with Augustine and Bangeman on March 9 to view the kill site. Augustine said he had met with some of the mine employees on the morning of March 6 and none could think of any possible source of the kill (i.e., accidental spills, waste discharge, etc.) He also said there was some question as to the validity of the number of fish killed. Soldano, Cruz and I then went to the Pagnotta residence where we met Bangeman and Virgil Booth. Soldano took several photographs and Bangeman and Booth collected fish samples. As we approached the Purgatoire River it appeared to have many bubbles on the surface. When I called Soldano's attention to this he thought it appeared normal but Bangeman agreed it looked somewhat frothy. I also called attention to the frothy, brown coating on the beaver pond below Pagnotta's house (described in report of March 6). Bangeman