It could be a month or two before work begins to ease the threat of a catastrophic flood in a historic mining town, officials say. More than a billion gallons of water contaminated with heavy metals is trapped in a tunnel in the mountains above the town of Leadville and threatening to blow.Environmental Protection Agency officials are scrambling to find a contractor to pump water from the tunnel, and more than $4.5 million to pay for the project, said Stan Christensen, remedial project manager for the federal agency.
Lake County officials declared a state of emergency for fear that melt from record snowfall could add to growing pressure in the tunnel and cause a blowout that would flood the town and contaminate the Arkansas River.
"It could come out, we just don't know where," county Commissioner Carl Schaefer said earlier. "We're seeing changes and we're very concerned. We're not crying `Chicken Little' here."
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