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September 27, 2016

After $62M cleanup, Clear Creek clear again

  • Cleaning up abandoned mines took 30 years, but now this historic Colorado town attracts anglers, rafters and even real estate investors.
  • By DAN ELLIOTT
    Associated Press

    IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. — For decades, a creek in the mountains west of Denver sometimes ran yellow from toxic waste gurgling out of abandoned mines — a painfully familiar story in the picturesque wreckage of Colorado's 1859 gold rush.

    But after a three-decade, $62 million Superfund cleanup, Clear Creek now lives up to its pristine-sounding name, at least most of the time. In the historic mining town of Idaho Springs, the creek attracts anglers, rafters and even real estate investors.


     
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