Massive, rust-colored piles of ore processing rock waste dot the landscape around Elkhorn. When rain washes through these tailings piles – towering remnants of long-shuttered hard rock mines, some the size of large homes – they may be releasing heavy metals into the surrounding earth, leaching potential poisons.
Yet they have been left to fester, decade after decade.
A recent report by the advocacy group Headwaters Economics detailed how heavy rains and flooding on many of the West’s 68,000 abandoned mines can leach toxic metals like arsenic into rivers and groundwater. Since the region’s mine inventories are incomplete, the report argued, it’s nearly impossible to know which sites pose the greatest danger – making cleanup all the more urgent.
