Transforming former mining and industrial sites into viable community resources

Leadville EPA Brownfield CWA Grant

Due to historic mining operations and a dramatic decline in the mining industry, a wide variety of brownfield sites are clustered throughout the greater Leadville area, located in Lake County, Colorado. These include abandoned mines, slag piles, and former commercial and industrial sites. Smelting operations also resulted in widespread heavy metal impacts in near surface soils throughout the community.

Lake County reach out to us help them with securing $400,000 in funding from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Community-Wide Brownfield Assessment Grant to assess priority brownfield sites throughout the county.

Over the first year of the project, we worked with the community to complete a comprehensive inventory of brownfields, which resulted in a list of approximately 20 priority sites. After identifying the sites, we completed Phase I and II environmental site assessments and cleanup planning at several priority sites.

The Lake County community has benefited from the reclamation of several sites. Local non-profit Cloud City Conservation Center Converted one former site into a thriving community farm and greenhouse. Additionally, land has been slated for future residential development.