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HIZ'~II 1 ~ :. III IIIIIIIII IIII III NeH ... .. ... ......: c::4:..a ~.. ...: x, ~'. 999 COLORADO• & THE~~WEST Steve Campbell, State/Region Editor ^ 892-5381 ,zts Inge drug yam andran s ('nlnradnnn l1NS - A Fort ertt is gaining en[ion for his a popular drug- rogram used in s the nation. eterson, leader Against DARE, rogram is used aths to snitch on soot marijuana Went, feautred a IVal1 St reel cle, fa uses on forcement offi- ~d elementary- dren through n as DARE - Resistmce and e questions the provided in the d h' is skeptical rt between offi- iren. ild this confi- dren, and then their privacy by a simple ques- the conduct of s in their own Peterson, 39, a d businessman. s defend DARE, een taught for Lorimer Coun- nolocalstudent m has identified drug user. said DARE nta- pprnved by tJte m department. en told by the that it's very d, and we are ttinue the pro- Fmt Collins Po- d Rainguel. ourtded Parents E soon alter the ante program »er County. He alizing marijua- e doesn't smoke 1 not allow Itis t to do so. its group has embers, mostly - parents who ana. s exist nation children name s as drug users, cites a recent purl, Maine. I ]-year-old girl (titers that her ked marijuana. reef Joraual re- the incident amity structure ° eirl In e- State levies huge fine on gold mining company Cyanide contamination results in $168,000 penalty, the largest agency can remember By BIII Scanlon Noes f,7u•imnmrnraf IVrifer The state's mining board Thurs- day stung Battle Mountain Gold mining company with $168,000 in fines for willfully ignoring cyanide contamination at its mine near San Luis. It was the largest fine against a mining company that anyone with the Colorado Mined Land Recla- mation Division could remember. "I[ was fair ... it was excellent. We'll be dancing in the streets," said Nora Jacquez, attorney for Costilla County Citizens Alliance. Cyanide, the same poison that killed death-row inmate Robert Al- ton Harris in California on Tues- day, has been used in recent years to separate gold ore from rock. The process has sparked a renais- sance in pit gold mining in the Nest, but has been blamed for killing fish and despoiling ntoun- lain slreantsnear mine operations. Attorneys (or Battle Mountain Gold said the leaching process didn't work because there was too much ice in the ponds and because the cyanide too often latched onto the abundant copper ore instead of the gold. An inadequate air supply forced cyanide levels to stay Rocky Mourssln News above the 100 parts per million level in the holding ponds, some- lirnes soaring as high as 240 ppm, attorneys said. The Mined Land Division said the company learned about the problem in September but didn't inform the state until late March. Dean Massey, attorney for Bat- tle Mountain, said managers prob- ably erred in believing it wasn't necessary to report elevated lev- els ofcyanide. The company predicts it may take 42 days [o reduce cyanide levels in holding ponds to the level - about 50 ppm - where the poison doesn't kill ducks. At $900 a day, that could boost the total tine to more than $200,000. Jacquez said neighbors who op- posed the mine since its inaugura- tion iit 1989 will push for addition- al daily tines r ntil the cyanide is cleaned up. "I don't see why they're not fined for every day they're still irr violation," she ;aid. 7-he board reserved the right to tine the company up to $1,000 a day until the si a is reclaimed. 13ut same member, indicated that if the company's tttitude is good and if it can reduce the threat to wild- life, the daily fines could end. Battle Mountain altornev Wal- ler Wise said it's by far the largest fine ever assessed against the firm. He noted Iha[ none of the cyanide left t to site, and tests indicated virtmilly none of the poi- sonisthreateniug groundwater. San Luis resident Maria Valdez isn't so sure, noting that most the people in the v:dley live above two aquifers. The r pper one, she said, is so shallow water often bubbles to the surface. "Cyanide mining ... has made mining low-grade ore economical- ly possible," slie said. "But we've become a sacrifice area. I'm a parent ...and 'm not willing." Board rnentter Luke Danielson said he felt betrayed because Bat- tle Mountain's good reputation in the business was going to make the San Luis mine the model to show that mining and environmen- tal sensitivity could go hand in hand. KRAKEL'S WEST A skier's passage,, ntr the Gore Rang ((qq~~ b drop, the tracks an elevation of 11,000 feet and links Vail Pass Wnf a cross~cij~up~~Iji~~~~~ilcross the along Interstate 70 with Red Cli(L !)emrlfrakel -