{"id":56907,"date":"2013-10-04T23:25:18","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T05:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mine-no-public-safety-concerns\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:57:33","slug":"mine-no-public-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mine-no-public-safety-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Mine: \u2018No public safety concerns\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
Tobie Baker\/Cortez Journal<br><br>Montezuma County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla listens intently as Col<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A naturopathic physician believes Mancos residents should undergo health assessments to test for volatile mercury airborne exposure as a result of an illegal gold mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMercury is a very serious neurotoxin and carcinogen,\u201d said Lyn Patrick, ND.<\/p>\n

Patrick was one of about 10 concerned citizens to address Mancos town officials Monday, Sept. 30, during a Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety presentation. Mining officials were on hand to deliver an update on the now-closed Red Arrow gold mine operation outside of town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to catch everyone up on the regulatory process,\u201d the mining agency\u2019s director Loretta Pineda told some three-dozen residents in attendance.<\/p>\n

During the 70-minute Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety slideshow exposition, which included a question-and-answer session, Patrick gasped when a photo of the Red Arrow operations ventilation system appeared on the screen. The rudimentary system included a large metal bucket with lead plumber\u2019s pipe to catch escaping mercury fumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried we were all seriously exposed to these vapors from this Mickey Mouse turned upside down vent hood,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cWe need funding for health assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety officials closed the Red Arrow gold mine some nine miles northeast of Mancos along with a milling operation just outside of town limits on Grand Avenue in June.<\/p>\n

Mine operator Craig Luikko was subsequently fined $335,000 for six violations, including operating a mine without a permit.<\/p>\n

Mancos resident Travis Custer told officials that he is concerned that ecological justice will not be served in the matter. He fears some residents, especially non-English speaking citizens, will be left in the dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important not to push people to the wayside,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable, and it\u2019s something the board should take seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos Mayor Rachel Simbeck told residents that town officials couldn\u2019t solve all of the problems in a single night, and the town would work to ensure all residents were properly informed of potential health risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all very concerned,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Paul Schmitz, one of two Hesperus residents to make a public statement, said he fears officials could be overlooking forensic criminal actions as a result of the illegal mine. He argued the Colorado Bureau of Investigations or the Federal Bureau of Investigations should be assigned to the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not getting the whole picture,\u201d he claimed. \u201cDon\u2019t underestimate how dangerous this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pineda tried to reassure residents, saying Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety officials do not believe the unpermitted milling operation poses any potential health risks despite groundwater about 6 feet below contaminated mill tailings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe issued a cease-and-desist order, and there\u2019s no mining activity ongoing,\u201d Pineda said. \u201cWe\u2019re sure there are no public safety concerns for Mancos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety official Steve Renner told residents that a certified Environmental Protection Agency lab confirmed that preliminary samples contained both mercury and arsenic. Officials estimate more than 1,300 cubic yards of solid materials and more than 2,500 gallons of liquid ingredients were contaminated and will need to be removed to a hazardous material landfill or buried onsite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be working closely with EPA officials in coming weeks to do more precise sampling,\u201d Renner said.<\/p>\n

Because of the federal government shutdown, some 16,000 EPA employees have been whittled down to about 1,000, according to a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla said local officials are committed to a speedy cleanup effort, but added there were potential funding concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants to pay for this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need our federal agencies to help us, and get this stuff out of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county commission asked if Red Arrow had applied for a permit to mill at the Mancos site would it have been allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would not be approved,\u201d responded Kate Pickford, a DRMS environmental specialist. \u201cUsing mercury in the milling process is how Third World countries do it, not in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

officials present an update about Red Arrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[174,13,398,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gold-and-precious-material","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62711,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56907\/revisions\/62711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56907"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}