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EPA Helps Clean Up Water For Breckenridge

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Nov 18, 2008 8:43 pm US/Mountain

EPA Helps Clean Up Water For Breckenridge

Reporting
Stan Bush
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) ― The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping clean up the water in Breckenridge.

Water coming out of a mine in Summit County contaminated a creek and killed the fish. Officials hope a new water treatment plant will erase the years of contamination from the mining industry.

"This project will remove 99 percent of the zinc and a large portion of the cadmium," an official said.

"We are looking to reduce concentrations of zinc by about 1,000 times," a worker said.

The concentration of elements is too low to affect humans, but can seriously hurt fish habitats and their ability to survive.

"So when it rains it snows. That water will seep into the ground, so it will begin to dissolve cadmium and zinc," Tanja McQueen with Biotech Environmental Technologies said. "So you end up with a toxic cocktail of metals in water that needs to be treated."

The contaminants from the Wellington-Oro mine flow down to parts of Denver's water supply, but in low enough doses it doesn't affect water quality. The problems happen well upstream.

The city says the treatment plant was necessary because there was no way to cut off the flow of toxic water.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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