WEEK OF NOVEMBER 7, 2024
VOLUME 53 | ISSUE 22
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Concern over Idaho Springs’ main water line prompts city to bow out of deal with apartment development BY CHRIS KOEBERL CKOEBERL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
public for walking tours of the winding rocky caverns inside the mine that stays at a constant 54 degrees year round. One group of about a dozen people picked their bright yellow hard hats and tightened them to their heads in preparation for the tour led by Tsukada. Several in the group wore School of Mines shirts or jackets and the need for hard hats quickly became apparent as the occasional clunk of hard hat against rock could be heard as the taller members of the group navigated the low
The city of Idaho Springs is shifting its financial gears from investing in the Four Points Fieldhouse apartment development on the former Golddigger football field to replacing the city’s main water line after finding out that replacing the water line would be a $10 million endeavor. The main water line that supplies all of Idaho Springs with water needs to be replaced, according to the Clear Creek County Public Works department. The line runs approximately three miles from the city water treatment plant to the north down Highway 103, parallel to Chicago Creek and into Idaho Spring, according to Public Works. “The line itself is critical because that’s all the water for the city of Idaho Springs,” Public Works Director Paul Crain said. The existing water line is only about 40 years old, but it’s made of iron, and the wet, acidic soil existing along the path eroded it at about half of its anticipated life span, Crain said. “It sits in the water table and we have salts and minerals that are dissolved in that water that are exacerbating corrosion on that line,” Crain said. “Electrolysis is what’s happening; so it’s stealing ions from the iron, causing the iron to corrode.” The problem was that the original installation of the line lacked Cathodic protection, according to Crain. By definition, Cathodic protection is a technique that prevents corrosion on metal surfaces by making them cathodes in an electrochemical cell. Typically, a main city water line is expected to last a city at least 100 years, but this one has lasted less than half of that, according to Idaho Springs Mayor Chuck Harmon. A Request for Proposals was recently sent to several construction companies for the cost of replacing the existing iron line with 16,500 feet (just over three miles) of 16-inch PVC pipe, ac-
SEE EDGAR MINE, P2
SEE WATER MAIN, P5
Tour members explore the Edgar Mine in Idaho Springs Oct. 26.
PHOTO BY CHRIS KOEBERL
Edgar Mine opens to the public for ‘Friends and Family’ day in Idaho Springs Instead of producing gold, the 150-year-old mine now acts as a one-of-a-kind research and educational facility
BY CHRIS KOEBERL CKOEBERL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Edgar Mine recently opened the massive steel doors to its main mine shaft to the public as part of its “Friends and Family” days. The mine is tucked into the mountains just above the city of Idaho
Springs and has been since 1870. During the gold rush, it was owned by the Big Five Mining Company and produced tons of high-grade gold, silver, lead and copper, according to Mines. The Colorado School of Mines in Golden acquired the Edgar in 1921 and now owns and operates it as a cuttingedge research facility in fields from chemical, electrical and petroleum engineering to mining technology and explosives, according to Mines. Students like Ray Tsukada say it allows them to take classroom instruction into a real mine for hands-on experience in their field of study. On Oct. 26 the mine was open to the
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