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Title Leadville : The Struggle To Revive An American Town
Published Island Press

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Map -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1. Living Downstream -- 2. Boom Years -- 3. The Fortunes of ASARCO -- 4. The Shutdown -- 5. Overrun by Outsiders -- 6. The Brown Envelope -- 7. Plugging the Yak -- 8. The Lead in Leadville -- 9. Stall, Stall, Stall -- 10. "Beyond Denial -- 11. A New Era -- 12. Moving Yellow Iron -- 13. Stray Horse Gulch -- 14. Give and Take -- 15. Saving Oro City -- 16. The Hydrologic Center of the Earth -- 17. Kids First -- 18. Doc's Meadows -- 19. Appalachia of the West -- 20. Wedding Cakes and Merlot Ponds -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Sources -- Index
Summary Leadville explores the clash between a small mining town high up in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and the federal government, determined to clean up the toxic mess left from a hundred years of mining. Set amidst the historic streets and buildings reflecting the town's past glory as one of the richest nineteenth-century mining districts in North America-a history populated with characters such as Meyer Guggenheim and the Titanic's unsinkable Molly Brown--the Leadville Gillian Klucas portrays became a battleground in the 1980s and 1990s. The tale begins one morning in 1983 when a flood of toxic mining waste washes past the Smith Ranch and down the headwaters of the Arkansas River. The event presages a Superfund cleanup campaign that draws national attention, sparks local protest, and triggers the intervention of an antagonistic state representative. Just as the Environmental Protection Agency comes to town telling the community that their celebrated mining heritage is a public health and environmental hazard, the mining industry abandons Leadville, throwing the town into economic chaos. Klucas unveils the events that resulted from this volatile formula and the remarkable turnaround that followed. The author's well-grounded perspective, in-depth interviews with participants, and keen insights make Leadville a portrait vivid with characterizations that could fill the pages of a novel. But because this is a real story with real people, It shows the reality behind the Western mystique and explores the challenges to local autonomy and community identity brought by a struggle for economic survival, unyielding government policy, and long-term health consequences induced by extractive-industry practices
Subject Abandoned mined lands reclamation -- Colorado -- Leadville
Mineral industries -- Environmental aspects -- Colorado -- Leadville
Water -- Pollution -- Arkansas River
Hazardous waste site remediation -- Colorado -- Leadville -- Citizen participation
20th Century.
19th Century.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Infrastructure.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
Abandoned mined lands reclamation
Hazardous waste site remediation -- Citizen participation
Mineral industries -- Environmental aspects
Water -- Pollution
Colorado -- Leadville
United States -- Arkansas River
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1597261866
9781597261869
Other Titles Leadville