Douglas C. Peters Geologist
169 Quaker Street
Golden, CO 80401–5543
Tel: 303–278–1540
E–Mail: petersdc@petersgeo.com
Natural Sources Contribute to River's Acidity
re: "Drought cleanses Alamosa River; Pollution evaporates with toxic snowmelt," May 20
Denver Post news story.
The basic assumption in this story (and, indeed, in all such articles about the environmentalist mantra of "the evil of mining") is that the Summitville Mine was and is the sole cause of all "pollution" in the Alamosa River. What everyone who believes that this is true fails to remember is that the mineral deposit and related geology were there many millions of years before the miners discovered and started mining the deposit.
Yes, the Alamosa is better for the moment with lower snowmelt and related runoff, because that means there is less water seeping into and back out of the ground, both at the mine and in the overall river drainage basin. However, even if the mine and the
Wightman Fork draining the mine area were to permanently dry up, the river still would be receiving water from the south side of the same mineralized mountain that the mining partially consumed.
This mineralized, and unmined, ground in South Mountain and elsewhere in the drainage basin is drained by streams with the picturesque, yet meaningful, names of "
Iron," "
Bitter," "
Alum," and so on. These tributaries to the
Alamosa River were named that way for a reason: they have high concentrations of acidity and metals. These streams do not drain mines, only the natural, mineralized rocks which contain minerals that produce the dissolved metals and acidity.
When there is little water going into the ground and resurfacing or flowing as surface runoff, the acidity and metals also are released in lower volumes into the river.
Natural "pollution" does exist and has been proven to occur in many places in Colorado and other mineralized areas of the West. I realize this is shocking to everyone in the environmental movement who think that all "pollution" is man–made and that nature is and always was pristine.
Sorry, folks, the geological truth lies elsewhere. Past unregulated mining and more modern cases of irresponsible mining practices made the situation worse in some areas, such as at Summitville. Unless EPA wants to remove the entire mountain and put it in some huge sealed landfill, the contaminants will keep flowing into the Alamosa River long, long after the
Summitville Mine is remediated and forgotten.
