Tailings Ponds Reclamation

During more than half a century of operation, the Mayflower Mill created four major tailings ponds, including the two oldest and largest ponds in the immediate foreground and Ponds No. 3 and No. 4 farther down the road, which date from the mid-1970s. Together these four ponds contain about 10 million tons of tailings. The mill's tailings-disposal system once represented the pinnacle of environmental practice, but later standards made the barren slopes of the tailings ponds an environmental concern. American mining companies developed reclamation methods to make tailings ponds more compatible with the surrounding landscape. Reclamation of the Mayflower's tailings ponds began in 1989, two years before the mill closed, with reshaping the sides and tops of the mounds for greater stability, then applying soil and planting a mixture of self-sustaining native grasses and trees. Because of the high altitude and dry climate, these plantings require several years to mature. By 1993, reclamation was complete on Ponds No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, while the lowest pond, No. 4, was still being used to store solids and was scheduled for eventual reclamation. The work at the Mayflower Mill shows how mining companies have cleaned up historic mine sites and blended them back into the land as environmental awareness in the American mining industry evolved.

Colorado · United States