SUPERFUND CLEANUP

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- Central City/Clear Creek Superfund Site

What is a Superfund Site?
Superfund is the name given to the federal environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. It is also the name of the fund established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA or Superfund). This law was enacted by Congress in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s. It allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups. Superfund is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cooperation with individual states and tribal governments. Superfund locates, investigates and cleans up hazardous-waste sites throughout the country.

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The Central City/Clear Creek Superfund Site
The Clear Creek/Central City Superfund site is located in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties, approximately 30 miles west of Denver. The Superfund study area covers the 400-square mile drainage basin of Clear Creek, which has been affected by a number of inactive precious metal mines. The Superfund investigation has focused on mine drainage tunnels and mine tailings and waste rock piles. The site was placed on the list of Superfund sites in September 1983. Since that time, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), EPA and the local community have worked to clean up heavy metal contamination resulting from decades of hard rock mining in the area. The CDPHE and EPA have developed clean-up plans to deal with the worst sources of contamination within the Clear Creek watershed.

The North Fork basin, which includes the North Fork of Clear Creek and its tributaries, is being tackled under Operable Unit 4 (OU4) of the Site. The remedy for OU4 addresses contaminated surface water, ground water, and sediment from mine waste piles within the study area. The cleanup strategies will address threats through the capping or removal of waste piles, and treatment of point and non-point sources of surface water contamination.

Cleanup activities occurring or planned include:
    • Construction of sediment dams in Russell, Willis, and Nevada Gulches;
    • Removal of certain mine waste piles to an on-site repository;
    • Capping of certain mine waste piles in place;
    • Stabilization of stream channels adjacent to capped waste piles;
    • Construction of run-on ditches upstream of capped waste piles;
    • Sediment reduction measures along the North Fork of Clear Creek; and
    • Treatment of the National Tunnel and Gregory Incline discharges and base flow in Gregory Gulch.

North Clear Creek Cooperation
By working cooperatively with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the CDPHE and EPA will be
able to complete the cleanup actions easier and cheaper. Rock generated by CDOT during highway
improvements will be used as an economical material to cap mine waste piles. A pipeline conveyance will be
installed during highway road construction, eliminating the need for trenching through the existing pavement.
CDOT will provide an area within its right-of-way for the CDPHE and EPA to build its mine drainage treatment
system.