{"id":97749,"date":"2018-09-29T05:03:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/agencies-to-close-25-abandoned-mines-on-alpine-loop\/"},"modified":"2018-09-29T05:03:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-29T11:03:10","slug":"agencies-to-close-25-abandoned-mines-on-alpine-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/agencies-to-close-25-abandoned-mines-on-alpine-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"Agencies to close 25 abandoned mines on Alpine Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tim
Tim Hobson with Horizon Environmental Services pounds rebar into a hole drilled into the adit of a mine near Animas Forks on Cinnamon Pass Road (San Juan County Road 2). A steel grate will be placed to close the entrance to the mine. Twenty-five abandoned mines along the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway between Silverton and Lake City will be sealed this year.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Twenty-five abandoned mines on the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway between Silverton and Lake City will be closed this fall in an effort to protect curious minds from wandering in and possibly getting hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Alpine Loop is a highly traveled route that\u2019s becoming more and more popular every year,\u201d said Tara Tafi, a senior project manager for the Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety\u2019s<\/a> inactive mines program. \u201cWe want to make sure they\u2019re protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alpine Loop is a 65-mile scenic, four-wheel-drive mountainous route around Lake City, Ouray and Silverton that passes some of Colorado\u2019s largest towering peaks, as well as numerous ghost towns and historic mining sites.<\/p>\n

But in recent years, with the rising popularity of off-road vehicles, more people are headed to the backcountry, and as a natural consequence, there\u2019s an increased chance of people getting into trouble.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Land Management<\/a> estimated more than 400,000 people visit the loop \u2013 only accessible in the summer months \u2013 every year.<\/p>\n

Agencies have collaborated to close an estimated 900 abandoned mines over the past 30 years in and around the Alpine Loop area, Tafi said.<\/p>\n

The project this fall, headed by the Department of Mining, Reclamation and Safety and BLM, is a continuation of that work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working in that area for a long time,\u201d Tafi said.<\/p>\n

The high country of the San Juan Mountains was heavily mined in the late 1800s and into the mid-1900s. The towns of Silverton and Ouray were founded to support the mining.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety is in the process of closing 25 abandoned mines along the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway between Silverton and Lake City.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But after mining tampered off and was no longer profitable, miners left behind untold numbers of holes in the ground. A survey in 1977 estimated there was about 24,000 abandoned mines in the state of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Many of these sites have fallen into disrepair, with shafts collapsing and unstable adits.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, an estimated 71 people have died across the country in abandoned mine accidents, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration<\/a>. Deaths are usually caused by drowning, ATV crashes and falls.<\/p>\n

From 2001 to 2017, five people died in abandoned mine accidents in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbandoned mines can be very dangerous, and the public should not enter them,\u201d said Stuart Schneider with the BLM. \u201cMine ceilings and walls can collapse, timbers can fail, there are deep pits, stopes or holes that the public can fall into, and there are toxic atmospheres and water hazards, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Mining, Reclamation and Safety in 1977 started closing mine portals to prevent death and injuries. Since then, the department, along with other partner agencies, has closed an estimated 10,000 mines in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe close about 300 open mines a year,\u201d Tafi said. \u201cAnd our work is still not done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abandoned mine closures usually involve backfilling or plugging an entrance to a mine, Schneider said. Access to many of the sites is by foot or air to reduce the impacts to the high tundra.<\/p>\n

Special attention is given to mines that also serve as habitat for bats, Tafi said. If bats are found living in a mine, a special grate that allows them to enter and exit the mine will be installed, Tafi said.<\/p>\n

About half of the 25 sites on the Alpine Loop mine closure project this fall are home to bat populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause bats play an important role in our ecosystem, we want them to continue using the mines,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just want to make it safer for humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cOur goal is not to wipe away the mining history. It\u2019s to allow people to view it and not get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bev Rich with the San Juan County Historical Society<\/a> said there\u2019s never been an issue between the mine closures and historic preservation. Rich, who was born and raised in Silverton, said it is never a good idea to enter an abandoned mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people have been told by their parents, you don\u2019t go into old mines,\u201d Rich said. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Large
Large rocks fell to the floor of a mine shaft near Cinnamon Pass Road (San Juan County Road 2). Abandoned mines can pose many dangers, including deep pits, water hazards, falling rock and toxic gases.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While closing abandoned mines is a goal of many local, state and federal agencies, funding is usually the determining factor on how many projects can get done in a year, with owners and any responsible parties long gone.<\/p>\n

Tafi said mine closure projects in Colorado are funded by a variety of sources. One of the primary contributors is a fee on coal production, which brought in $3 million to the state last year.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Department of Mining, Reclamation and Safety closed 219 hazardous openings statewide at the cost of around $1.1 million. And, the state spent more than $4 million in construction projects.<\/p>\n

The project this fall on the Alpine Loop will cost about $60,000 \u2013 a 50-50 split between the state and the BLM.<\/p>\n

\u201cBLM is working to complete closures within a quarter mile of roads and trails as a priority over the last few years,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cThere are hundreds of mine openings \u2026 and it will take a number of years to close them. This is dependent upon future funding as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year, two projects around Lake City, Ouray and Silverton will close another 40 or so abandoned mines, Tafi said. More attention is being drawn to this area as it becomes more popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early years of this program, we focused on mine closures around towns,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re working out from those areas. People are venturing further and further into the backcountry, and so are we.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project aims to keep people out, avoid injuries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,971,13,239,2306,327,1187,810,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-emergency-planning","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mining","tag-mining-issues","tag-silverton","tag-tourism","tag-tourism-recreation","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97749","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=97749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97749"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}