So Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas should evacuate?
Posted on 02/21/2008 8:32:45 PM PST by jebanks
Colorado health officials estimate that it will cost $5 million to launch an emergency water-pumping program next week to avert a potential catastrophic blowout at an old mine tunnel here.
Such an event could send a toxic brew laced with heavy metals into the Arkansas River and harm hundreds of people in this historic mountain community.
Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, told townspeople Friday the state will do everything it can to jump-start a response plan that includes pumping water out of the tunnel to relieve pressure and to treat the water before it is channeled into the river.
"There is no need to panic," Martin said. "There is a lot of planning going on here. Most of Leadville faces no risk at all. But the depth of the water pools is worrying," he said. "It is incumbent upon us to act quickly."
Gov. Bill Ritter on Friday asked President Bush for help.
"Your immediate action is needed to assure that we have done all we can to avert a catastrophic event," Ritter wrote in a letter to Bush.
As emergency response officials gathered at the courthouse Friday, Elsie Duran, 52, and her husband unloaded bottled water from their truck and carried it into their trailer home along the Arkansas River.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
The link should be www.savethearkansasriver.org
Read some of the comments and you will find that this is Bush’s fault.
Leadville may have to perish, much as did Pompeii.
So be it.
If I lived downstream, I would leave.
You would have thought that they would be beyond the planning stage by now. But hey, government never has done anything speedily except raise taxes.
Hello?
an emergency ( short term ) water-pumping program ...
No need to panic, but immediate action is needed.
OK.
Personally, if I lived in that area, I just might prefer a “little” panic. They need to move and panic can be a great motivator.
So Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas should evacuate?
I was in Denver last week, and the papers were describing
the mine and said there was approximately one billion
gallons of water threatening the area.
They said the government was bringing in pumps to transfer
the water to a treatment facility close by.
The pumps were going to pump 900 gpm into the facility.
Do the math.
Tough folks in Leadville. I’ve heard the saying about the 4 seasons there: Winter, Winter, Winter, and Three Weeks of Mud.
Treat the water?
Have they been treating it for the decades it has been running out of the mine until it plugged up?
Good grief....We are all going to die, all of the sudden like....sorta....
Whatta load in leadville.
I’m not sure about that, but I read an article here a couple of weeks ago about this. Any city that gets its water from the river should think about ways to remove heavy metal contaminants,
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