Summitville Mine, Colorado

The Summitville Mine is a closed gold mine in Southwestern Colorado. It operated for just a few years, and is known primarily for its legacy of environmental contamination and litigations. In 1986, Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI), a subsidiary of Canadian-based Galactic Resources Limited, started a major open pit operation in this historic small-scale gold mining district, and used cyanide heap-leaching to extract the gold from the low grade ore, a common technique. The company allowed toxic liquids from a variety of sources into nearby waterways, however, and a 17-mile dead zone was eventually created along the Alamosa River (a major tributary of the Rio Grande). In 1990, the EPA began inspecting the site, prompting wealthy Canadian investor and majority shareholder Robert Friedland (aka "Toxic Bob"), to sell his interests in the mine and flee the country.  In December of 1992 Galactic Resources declared bankruptcy and abandoned all mining operations . Due to the immediate threat of contaminant release from the site, the state of Colorado requested emergency assistance from the EPA, which was provided within days. In 1994, the EPA added the site to their Superfund clean up list. Estimates of the clean up costs, including the cost of ongoing water treatment for the foreseeable future, are more than $200 million.