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• ~-' III IIIIIIIIIIIII III . • 999 FEB 16 lyyb FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 199f~w~sion of Mmerais u „~Q,J~7 ACf: PARK TETER FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FRI~IDS OP EI.DORA VALLEY (303)258-7957 TOXIC MINE WASTES MENACE FRONT RANCE FEDORA -- Mining operators with a record of serial pollution are seeking government permits to expand their activities along Colorado's Front Rance. Operations stretching lrom Gold Hill in Boulder County to Idaho Springs in Clear Creek County will be considered at the February 21-22 hearings of Colorado's ~4ined Land Reclamation Board. Alarmed by the threat of toxic wastes draining from the Mogul Tunnel mine in Eldora into adjacent Boulder Creek, agrass-roots citizens group has traced the connections and past records of companies associated with the mine. On the basis of its investigation, Friends of Eldora Valley sees a major threat to Front Range populations. "The Colorado permitting authorities should have learned from the Summitville cyanide disaster that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of hindsight," says Park Teter. coordinator of FEV. He notes that the Franklin i`9ill, perched above Idaho Springs, is designed for a cyanide process, and that a participant in the joint venture at the Franklin Mill, Wayne Tatman, abandoned a mine in Washington state that became a national superfund site because of cyanide in the ground water. Environmental problems currently block most of the Franklin operations, but earlier this month Colorado's Division of Minerals and Geology gave perrnission for the mill to crush rock from Eldora's Mogul Tunnel. The Mogul mine is operated by Durango Metals, also a participant in thejoint venture at Franklin. The president of Durango Metals, Thames Hartley, was managing a mill in Gold Hill when its waste water was dumped into the watershed of Boulder Creek. The Division of Minerals and Geology estimated that 10,000 cubic feet of contaminated materials from [he tailings pond drained into the watershed. Hanley inherited management of the Gold Hill Mill from Tatman, under whose supervision the tailings pond spilled twice. Afrer abandoning the Silver Mountain cyanide operation in Washington State, Tatman was cited by the federal Bureau of Land Management for failure to clean up a mine in Nevada, and his 1984 jury conviction for polluting Oregon waters Gvas vacated on a technicality. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality officers were advised no[ to inspect Tatman's mining operation without an armed escort because he had been brandishing a pistol and an Uzi tnacltine gun.