Miners began mining for gold and silver in the Battle Mountain area between the towns of Minturn and Red Cliff as early as the 1880s. In 1912, the Empire Zinc Company, later a subsidiary of New Jersey Zinc Company, began consolidating individual mining claims into what is now known as the Eagle Mine. In 1929, a mill was constructed underground within the mine workings and the tailings were slurried through a pipeline/trestle system to a location downstream, known as the Old Tailings Pile. In the mid-1940s, the Old Tailings Pile reached capacity. Tailings were then deposited across the Eagle River from the Old Tailings Pile in an area known as Rex Flats. In 1942, the pipeline was extended to a location near Cross Creek using an elevated wooden trestle to cross Rex Flats, and the New Tailings Pile (now known as the Consolidated Tailings Pile) was constructed. The New Tailings Pile also included a 1.5-acre water retention pond known as the Historic Pond. Tailings were again deposited in Rex Flats in the 1950s (see map below). The tailings piles — more than 65,000 cubic yards — were removed and transported to an area in Maloit Park, near Minturn. Those tailings were put into a large pile, then capped with clay and other material that doesn't allow snow to seep in, or out, of the pile. Next to the pile is a water treatment plant. That plant treats contaminated water from the flooded mine works, returning cleaned water to the river after the minerals have been taken out and turned into something with the rough consistency of modeling clay.
In December 1977, then-owner Gulf + Western Industries, Inc. closed the mill and most mining activities ceased. Some copper and silver production continued until the mine workings were allowed to flood and the mine closed in 1984. Remaining workers vacated the company town of Gilman immediately after the mine closed. Portions of the site were bought and sold numerous times in years that followed. EPA and the state of Colorado identified CBS Operations, Inc. (CBS) as the party responsible for the cleanup of the site. CBS had acquired Viacom International, Inc., the successor in interest to New Jersey Zinc Company.
CBS Owns This?:
Yes, the CBS that gives us “60 Minutes” and the “Big Bang Theory” is the responsible party for the Eagle Mine cleanup.
It happened through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the years, starting when the New Jersey Zinc Company was acquired by Gulf + Western decades ago.
While the mine was sold in 1983 to a man named Glenn Miller — no relation to any local Millers — he declared bankruptcy and vanished. When the mine was declared an EPA Superfund site in the 1980s, the government went after the previous owner. That train of ownership has eventually landed with CBS
EPA divided the Eagle Mine Superfund site into three Operable Units (OUs). Operable Unit 1 was established to control the transport of heavy metals from the principal sources of mine waste (such as the Eagle Mine itself and various tailings and roaster piles) that were impacting the Eagle River. OU2 was established to evaluate health risks at Maloit Park Wetlands, the Minturn Middle School and the abandoned company town of Gilman. Because the wetlands have been remediated and the school proved not to be a risk, OU2 today focuses on contaminated soils at Gilman only. OU3 (also referred to as the North Property) was established in the early 2000s to mirror the boundaries of a private residential development proposed for the area at that time.
