The Colorado U.S. Attorney’s office has obtained a court-ordered access warrant for the Environmental Protection Agency to begin repairing failing mine-tailing ponds north of Rico that are adjacent to the Dolores River, EPA attorney Sheldon Muller reported Thursday.

The action comes after long-gone land speculators, who the EPA claims own the series of 11 settling ponds draining the long-abandoned Argentine mine operation, refused to allow the agency’s emergency response team permission to enter the property last week, Muller said in a phone interview.

"We had to go to court in order to get legal access because we were having a hard time getting permission from who we believe is the owner," he said. "They were not willing to sign a consent form."

An emergency response team will start work Monday on a new culvert drain between two of the ponds and will add about 1 1/2 feet to the existing berm between the pond and the Dolores River, said Rico Town Manager and Attorney Eric Heil.

The work should take about three days, with about four people on the emergency response team.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Strickland said in a news release Friday, "Colorado’s rivers and environment are precious resources that must be protected. Our action today is meant to assist the EPA in responding to this environmental emergency."

The now-dissolved Rico Development Corporation (RDC), its former secretary, Virginia Sell, and its former president, Wayne Webster, have been accused in an ongoing federal lawsuit of failing to comply with an effluent-discharge permit issued to RDC from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, and for violating the requirements of the Clean Water Act.

At least two settling ponds are clearly draining untreated waste water into the Dolores River and threaten to breach their soil berms further once the winter’s snow pack begins to fill the ponds even more. If the berms fail completely, tons of toxic mine sludge laden with lead, arsenic and cadmium will be dumped into the adjacent Dolores River, which would pollute downstream fishery and wildlife habitats, including annual feeding grounds for the bald eagle. The Dolores River is also the municipal water source for the towns of Dolores and Cortez.

An initial investigation of the abandoned mine-tailing clean-up operation by EPA inspectors on April 14 confirmed the need for immediate action, Muller said.

"The team reported that if nothing is done soon the embankment would likely give way and release a good part of the sediment and sludge into the river impacting the environment and human health," Muller said.

At least two ponds are clearly overflowing into the Dolores, and pipes designed to move wastewater between ponds are clogged, causing the system to back up. The wastewater treatment plant and ponds have been abandoned since 1996.

A settlement agreement with Webster and Sell is unlikely by the May 2 deadline, at which point the lawsuit goes to court.

"The settlement talks are off, because Webster has fired his attorney on the matter," Muller said.

The EPA is seeking to force Sell and Webster to rehabilitate the treatment plant and treat the effluent from the Blain Tunnel so it meets water quality standards. Civil penalties are also being sought against the defendents for violating the Clean Water Act regulations regarding permits and unauthorized discharge.

Speaking on Friday from his home in Athens, Texas, Webster, 81, said that he cannot afford to fix the ponds that are in his name and blamed the problem on the high beaver population.

"The beavers are causing the problem. All their work is clogging everything off and the wildlife officials won’t go and take them out of there," Webster said. "I can’t go up there because I cannot handle the altitude.

"You can’t fight the EPA and I’m sure they will try to make me pay, but I am broke. They can sue or do whatever they want but I do not have much, and I’m too old to run the damn thing. But they won’t listen to me, you know."

The action to repair and reinforce failing mine-tailing ponds and piping north of Rico is only temporary, according to the EPA, and the clean-up does not include fixing a failed concrete barrier that is supposed to divert mine water from the nearby Blaine Tunnel into the settlement ponds. That barrier has failed and is now draining untreated effluent into Silver Creek, a tributary of the Dolores River, according to the federal complaint. Rico draws their municipal water source upstream from the illegal Blaine Tunnel discharge point.