<\/p>\n
The ongoing conflict between the Environmental Protection Agency and the owner of the Gold King Mine shows no signs of slowing in 2016, with a land-use agreement set to expire in March.<\/p>\n
The two sides take starkly different tones about negotiations:<\/p>\n
EPA: \u201cMr. Hennis\u2019 Consent for Access to EPA expires at the end of March. EPA intends to discuss extension of the access agreement in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Todd Hennis, Gold King owner: \u201cI have nothing to report. EPA hasn\u2019t bothered to talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hennis started buying mining claims in the highly mineralized area north of Silverton in the mid-1990s. In 2005, he picked up Gold King, a historically \u201cdry\u201d mine with little to no discharge.<\/p>\n
But after the Sunnyside mine pool backed up from a bulkhead installed in the late 1990s, the Gold King increasingly discharged water laden with heavy metals. Pollution got so bad the EPA began a remediation project in 2014 on two mines about 10 miles north of Silverton: the Red and Bonita and the Gold King.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 5, 2015, the federal agency broke the dam of loose rock and dirt holding back pressurized water at the portal of Gold King, releasing 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath, EPA seized a scattering of Hennis\u2019 land claims in the area, including Gladstone, the site of the EPA\u2019s temporary water treatment facility.<\/p>\n
Hennis previously told The Durango Herald that negotiations with the EPA over use of his land had taken a bitter turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese thugs just went in and took it over, and then told me we\u2019re not going to settle, screw you, we\u2019re on your land, and if you don\u2019t like it, we\u2019ll go to federal court because you\u2019re not cooperating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As conversation continues among San Juan County Commissioners and Silverton Town Trustees about pursuing Superfund listing, it remains unclear whether the boundaries will include any of Hennis\u2019 land.<\/p>\n
Hennis, a resident of Golden, has never mined Gold King, and has said he hopes to sell his claims to a mining prospector.<\/p>\n