American Fork Creek cleanup is joint effort

"It wasn't something we had to do," said Laura Schaffer, director of public relations at the resort. "But we felt it was important to the environment. Among other things, we hoped this would encourage others to get involved in similar projects."

This was the first time a conservation group, like TU, and a private company, like Snowbird, had come together for mine reclamation work under an agreement with the EPA.

Along with some funding at the onset of the project, Tiffany and Co. has donated other money to support similar project in other states. (Tiffany has a contract with Kennecott to supply gold and silver for its jewelry and was very interested in helping support the Utah cleanup effort.)

Since the Utah cleanup, Fitzgerald said, two projects have been completed in Idaho and one in Colorado, "and they are about to get going on a project in Montana," he added.

Tailings from the three mines were removed from their original location and placed in a repository. There was roughly 40,000 cubic yards of waste at the Pacific Mile location, which could have covered a football field with 18 feet of waste.

The pile was capped with impervious plastic and the area covered with an erosion-control blanket embedded with native flowers, grasses and soil to create a permanent repository.

There are dozens of abandoned mines in the canyon. Currently, only one, the Live Yankee Mine, located deep in Mary Ellen Gulch, about four miles from the mouth of the American Fork Canyon, is polluting the stream.

"This is a huge waste dump discharging acid drainage," said Fitzgerald. "Because of its location we would have to remove the tailings, which would cost millions of dollars. At this point all we want to do is intercept the drainage and keep it from coming in contact with the waste drop.

"The problem right now is we can't locate the owner. We've been trying for seven years. Once we get the owner's permission, we can start the project. Snowbird has already committed to help even though it does not own the land."

The project would take only a few weeks and would cost about $10,000 to complete. The Snowbird cleanup cost around $220,000.

The American Fork site is one of more than 500,000 orphaned mine site in the western United States.

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