Tuesday, June 8, 2010
A Dark Day at Turquoise Lake
I woke up Monday morning with a familiar pain in my right lower backside. At first I tried to blame it on my inflatable mattress but unfortunately I remember this pain from my left side about 10 years ago. Apparently my right kidney looks like the second picture below. I tried to walk it off, sit it out and pee it out but nothing was working. The pain was getting worse so I had to wake Connie and Christopher. We spent the next 4 hours in the St. Vincent General Hospital ER. Everyone was great and took excellent care of me. Three doses of morphine later they sent me on my way. When we left I was feeling pretty good but 15 minutes into the drive I started throwing up and felt like crap the rest of the day. Connie spent two hours cleaning and packing up camp so we could head home while I sat in the car crying like a girl that I was too sick to move. We had a four hour drive home and the throwing up continued about every hour or so. The morphine finally wore off at about 11pm and my oxycodone kicked in 40 minutes after I took it. I had one kidney stone in route to my bladder when they did the catscan and 4 or 5 more waiting to depart. I cant wait for that to happen since they are larger than the one that has moved already. Today I am drinking tons of water and hoping that they pass as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Turquoise Lake
We planned a camping trip this weekend up to Estes Park. The scenic route we chose to get there was going to be about a 9 hour drive so we decided to split it up into two days. Our first stop was going to be just outside of Leadville at Turquoise Lake. We found a great campground called Baby Doe in the San Isabel National Forest. It was right on the shore of the lake in a pine forest. Walking from the campsite down to the water you break out of the pine trees and onto the rocky sand beach. The lake and the snow capped mountains in the background are just incredible. This was Christophers first time in a tent and the first time Connie and I had been in one in a long time. The nights were in the 40's and the days were in the 70's. There was always a nice breeze and if you stayed in the sun in got hot and the shade was a little cool and of course the breeze off the lake was almost always cool. This place was perfect so we decided to stay 3 nights and planned to head up to Estes Park another time.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
First Real Day On The Job
I started the visitor surveys on Wednesday, 5-26. I am working from my government issued 2002 Dodge Dakota. I have to set up road signs and traffic cones to get all traffic exiting an area to stop at the survey site. I will work a total of 25 different locations over the next 4 months, some I will work more than once. I set up a traffic counter as soon as I arrive and I return 24 hours later to pick it up and log the information. I also work the area for 6 hours conducting the visitor use surveys as they exit the area. The scenery and weather were perfect on Wednesday. I even got a sunburn. It was good to finally get going.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Summitville Mine Ghost Town
A beautiful drive to a place with an incredible past leading back to 1870. Below is the info on Summitville from wikipedia.
The Summitville mine was a gold mining site in Rio Grande County, Colorado 25 miles (40 km) south of Del Norte. It is remembered for the environmental damage caused in the 1980s by the accidental leakage of mining by-products into local waterways and then the Alamosa River.
History
Gold was discovered at Summitville in 1870. By 1885 there were more than 250 individual claims in operation. The site was soon mined out, with the weather of the 3,500 m high site adding to difficulties. The site was re-opened on a number of occasions for gold or other metals but with little success, and prior to the site's acquisition in 1984 the last survey was in the early 1970s for copper. The total amount of gold extracted from the site from 1873 until 1959 was around 257,600 troy ounces (8,012 kg).
In 1984 an area of 1,230 acres (5.0 km2) was acquired by the Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI). They began a new large-scale open pit operation covering 550 acres (2.2 km2). New techniques were used to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore.
The mining involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanide solution to leach the gold out of the ore—heap leaching (see also cyanide process). The solution (leachate) was then removed from the ore and the valuable metals extracted using activated carbon. SCMCI leached around 10 million tons of ore on a 73-acre (0.3 km2) heap leach pad. The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992. A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered. SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million U.S. gallons (610,000 m³) of stored water needing treatment.
The cease and desist order and aftermath
In 1991 SCMCI was served with a cease and desist order by the state government, concerned with metal levels in nearby water due to the run-off of excess water from the heap leach pad and through the damaged pad liner. Possibly 85,000 US gallons (320 m³) of contaminated water had leaked into nearby creeks. In December 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd. declared itself bankrupt and declared that the site clean-up operations would halt immediately. The site clean-up was undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response. The main problem was the contaminated water held in an inadequate pond system. Another source of contamination was water leaking from older underground workings. The EPA estimated that 3,000 US gallons (11 m³) were leaking from the site every minute. However, despite the water having a pH of around 3 (acidic), a USGS study stated that the run-off was no serious threat.
$155 million was spent on the site for detoxification and to reduce leakage. Robert Friedland, the chairman of Galactic Resources Ltd. paid around $30 million in settlement. Heavy metals and acid from the mine are suspected to have killed stocked fish in downstream reservoirs on the Alamosa River in 1990. Although cyanide from the heap leach pads also leaked in the watershed, cyanide is believed to have quickly volatilized into the atmosphere without damaging downstream aquatic life.[4]
Natural versus manmade pollution
Rocks in the Summitville area were millions of years ago subjected to acid-sulfate alteration, which causes the streams that drain the area to be naturally acidic and naturally high in metals. The very names of nearby creeks are evidence of poor natural water quality: Iron Creek, Alum Creek, and Bitter Creek. Mining at Summitville, by exposing more rock surface to weathering, increased acidity and concentrations of dissolved metals in runoff from the mine area. The degradation in Summitville runoff water quality has its origin in both decades-old mining structures, such as the Reynold’s adit, and the open-pit mining of 1985-1992.
Water runoff from the Summitville mine flows down Wrightman Fork, mixes with naturally acidic runoff from unmined areas, flows into the Alamosa River and flows out of the mountains into the San Luis Valley, where it is used for crop irrigation. A United States Geological Survey investigation arrived at three major conclusions:
”Extreme acid-rock drainage is the dominant long-term environmental concern at the Summitville mine and could have been predicted given the geological characteristics of the deposit. Extensive remedial efforts are required to isolate both unweathered sulfides and soluble metal salts in the open-pit area and mine-waste piles from weathering and dissolution.”
”It is likely that natural contamination adversely affected water quality and fish habitat in the Alamosa River long before and will continue to have adverse affects even when acid drainage from Summitville is remediated. Thus, reasonable natural conditions for the Alamosa River must be established in order to set realistic remediation conditions for the Summitville site.”
”Results of studies as of late 1993 indicate that mining at Summitville has had no discernable short-term adverse effects on barley or alfalfa crops irrigated with Alamosa River water. Remediation of the site will help to ensure that no adverse effects occur over the longer term.”[5]
The Summitville mine was a gold mining site in Rio Grande County, Colorado 25 miles (40 km) south of Del Norte. It is remembered for the environmental damage caused in the 1980s by the accidental leakage of mining by-products into local waterways and then the Alamosa River.
History
Gold was discovered at Summitville in 1870. By 1885 there were more than 250 individual claims in operation. The site was soon mined out, with the weather of the 3,500 m high site adding to difficulties. The site was re-opened on a number of occasions for gold or other metals but with little success, and prior to the site's acquisition in 1984 the last survey was in the early 1970s for copper. The total amount of gold extracted from the site from 1873 until 1959 was around 257,600 troy ounces (8,012 kg).
In 1984 an area of 1,230 acres (5.0 km2) was acquired by the Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI). They began a new large-scale open pit operation covering 550 acres (2.2 km2). New techniques were used to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore.
The mining involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanide solution to leach the gold out of the ore—heap leaching (see also cyanide process). The solution (leachate) was then removed from the ore and the valuable metals extracted using activated carbon. SCMCI leached around 10 million tons of ore on a 73-acre (0.3 km2) heap leach pad. The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992. A total of 294,365 troy ounces (9,155.8 kg) of gold and 319,814 troy ounces (9,947.3 kg) of silver were recovered. SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million U.S. gallons (610,000 m³) of stored water needing treatment.
The cease and desist order and aftermath
In 1991 SCMCI was served with a cease and desist order by the state government, concerned with metal levels in nearby water due to the run-off of excess water from the heap leach pad and through the damaged pad liner. Possibly 85,000 US gallons (320 m³) of contaminated water had leaked into nearby creeks. In December 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd. declared itself bankrupt and declared that the site clean-up operations would halt immediately. The site clean-up was undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response. The main problem was the contaminated water held in an inadequate pond system. Another source of contamination was water leaking from older underground workings. The EPA estimated that 3,000 US gallons (11 m³) were leaking from the site every minute. However, despite the water having a pH of around 3 (acidic), a USGS study stated that the run-off was no serious threat.
$155 million was spent on the site for detoxification and to reduce leakage. Robert Friedland, the chairman of Galactic Resources Ltd. paid around $30 million in settlement. Heavy metals and acid from the mine are suspected to have killed stocked fish in downstream reservoirs on the Alamosa River in 1990. Although cyanide from the heap leach pads also leaked in the watershed, cyanide is believed to have quickly volatilized into the atmosphere without damaging downstream aquatic life.[4]
Natural versus manmade pollution
Rocks in the Summitville area were millions of years ago subjected to acid-sulfate alteration, which causes the streams that drain the area to be naturally acidic and naturally high in metals. The very names of nearby creeks are evidence of poor natural water quality: Iron Creek, Alum Creek, and Bitter Creek. Mining at Summitville, by exposing more rock surface to weathering, increased acidity and concentrations of dissolved metals in runoff from the mine area. The degradation in Summitville runoff water quality has its origin in both decades-old mining structures, such as the Reynold’s adit, and the open-pit mining of 1985-1992.
Water runoff from the Summitville mine flows down Wrightman Fork, mixes with naturally acidic runoff from unmined areas, flows into the Alamosa River and flows out of the mountains into the San Luis Valley, where it is used for crop irrigation. A United States Geological Survey investigation arrived at three major conclusions:
”Extreme acid-rock drainage is the dominant long-term environmental concern at the Summitville mine and could have been predicted given the geological characteristics of the deposit. Extensive remedial efforts are required to isolate both unweathered sulfides and soluble metal salts in the open-pit area and mine-waste piles from weathering and dissolution.”
”It is likely that natural contamination adversely affected water quality and fish habitat in the Alamosa River long before and will continue to have adverse affects even when acid drainage from Summitville is remediated. Thus, reasonable natural conditions for the Alamosa River must be established in order to set realistic remediation conditions for the Summitville site.”
”Results of studies as of late 1993 indicate that mining at Summitville has had no discernable short-term adverse effects on barley or alfalfa crops irrigated with Alamosa River water. Remediation of the site will help to ensure that no adverse effects occur over the longer term.”[5]
Wait 5 minutes
They have a saying here, "If you dont like the weather in Colorado, wait five minutes". Yesterday we went on a 100 mile (each way) road trip to Durango. The weather was beautiful. We stopped at a great spot overlooking a valley just before Pagosa Springs so Connie and Christopher could do a little rock climbing, had lunch, picked up some information on the Durango to Silverton Train and stopped at a park along the river with a playground so Christopher could play for a couple of hours before the drive home. It was 73 out and everyone, except us, was in shorts and t-shirts. The weather was absolutely beautiful with blue skies and lots of sunshine. This morning I woke up to snow. Yes, snow. May 24th and the snow is so heavy we can't see the far side of the pasture out our windows. At first it wasnt sticking but now it is laying on the pine trees and grass. Within an hour everything outside is white. Another beautiful day in Colorado!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Beaver Creek Reservoir
Christopher and I got out of Connie's way today and headed up to Beaver Creek Reservoir. Its only a few miles up the road from our place and its really beautiful up there. We hiked around the creeks flowing into the reservoir and of course tossed lots of rocks into the water.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Ground Hog Day? No, Our First Non-Equine Visitor
Connie and Christopher saw him out and about today while I was gone.
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