Bills seek to speed tunnel draining
Rocky Mountain News
Published February 29, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Members of Colorado's congressional delegation introduced bills Thursday to untie bureaucratic knots delaying efforts to drain water backed up behind a collapsed Leadville tunnel.
Bills were introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate to direct the Bureau of Reclamation to treat water pumped out of the mine drainage tunnel, and clarify that the agency has the legal authority to do so.
"Interestingly enough, not only do we have a physical blockage with the tunnel, we have a legal blockage," said U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs. He joined with Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, of Colorado Springs, on legislation designed to do away with questions over legal authority by federal agencies to deal with the problem.
Lake County commissioners, weary of what they perceived to be bureaucratic delays, declared a state of emergency this month. The clogged tunnel, they said, threatens to burst, flooding a nearby community of homes and the Arkansas River with metals-contaminated water.
While some suggest that the threat has been overstated, politicians of all stripes along with state and local agencies have accelerated efforts to find a solution.
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, introduced legislation Thursday that, among other things, would authorize $40 million for long-term fixes to the problem.
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