That the reclamation of the Carbon Junction coal mine site on Ewing Mesa is complete is certainly good news. Even more so is knowing that the 160-acre parcel of land with a stunning view of Durango could be used for a more community-friendly purpose such as a fairgrounds and outdoor music venue.
It is especially welcome when compared to what looks to be a decade-long Superfund effort to clean up the contamination left by historic mining near Silverton. That toxic legacy is from an era when mines could be opened, operated and then simply abandoned when operations turned unprofitable.
More than 20 years after Oakridge Energy received a permit to mine coal on the site – known since Durango’s founding days as a large local reserve of coal – the company has finished a reclamation project to return the disturbed land to agricultural use, capped off by reseeding the area.
Should the work pass inspection, and all indications point to that outcome, the company will receive the last portion of the bond money previously posted to the state to ensure that reclamation work would be performed after mining operations ended.
Oakridge never brought the Carbon Junction mine to production due to the coal’s high-ash content and prohibitive transportation costs. However, the company has honored its obligation to reclaim the site and should be recognized for it.
In this case, the precautions put in place to avoid saddling the local community and the state with the kind of abandoned-mine disaster all too common in Colorado have worked. The Carbon Junction site is, according to the Colorado Division of Mining, Reclamation and Safety, an example of mining remediation done right.
Companies in extractive industries are prone to cite environmental agencies and regulations and post-project reclamation requirements as onerous burdens that make the costs of mining prohibitive. This in turn hurts local economies that would otherwise benefit through taxes, local spending and employment.
But one look at what has evolved for more than a century in San Juan County is all it takes to confirm that the regulations, and the agencies that provide oversight and enforce them, are necessary.
