On a national scale, the use of these cyanide leach pads to process gold have been a costly environmental nightmare in Colorado, Montana and South Dakota, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to clean up the legacy left by mining companies that went bankrupt.
The Environmental Protection Agency has spent more than $350 million to clean up the contamination caused by the Summitville Mine perched in the Rocky Mountains east of the Continental Divide at an elevation of 11,000 feet.
More than $110 million has been spent by the federal agency at the Gilt Edge Mine in South Dakota, where the governor sought emergency action to keep the mining company from abandoning its costly water treatment program when its parent company went bankrupt. The state and federal government later sued to obtain some compensation, reaching a $30 million settlement in 2012.
Matthew Allen, an EPA spokesman, said both Superfund sites will demand cleanup for years to come.
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