Summitville, Colorado

CERCLA

Data Management

Client: Confidential

Completion: Ongoing

Cost: $75,000

Summitville has been an active mine site for over 100 years. Early mining included placer and underground mining. In the 1980's, an open-pit mine with a cyanide heap leach was developed at the site. In 1992, the open-pit operator declared bankruptcy and abandoned the site.

The EPA, at the request of the Colorado Department of Health, took control of the site to try to minimize potential impacts to the environment. Remediation at the site is ongoing under an emergency response action.Pinyon is providing technical support to one of the potentially responsible parties (PRP) identified by the EPA. The PRP was involved in earlier underground mining at the site, and has been asked by the EPA to contribute to the cost of site clean-up. Pinyon is evaluating the technical appropriateness of the EPA emergency response actions, and is obtaining and reviewing historical data to evaluate the contribution of the PRP to existing site contamination.

Pinyon has developed a database of documents obtained, with key word indexing to facilitate data retrieval. Pinyon is the main technical contract for the PRP's attorneys, and assists in developing strategy and identifying potential expert witnesses. Pinyon also provides information to the expert witnesses for development of expert reports.