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TWO FORMER COLORADO MINE OPERATORS PLEAD GUILTY TO VIOLATING THE CLEAN WATER ACT
Release Date: 06/19/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1998
TWO FORMER COLORADO MINE OPERATORS PLEAD GUILTY TO VIOLATING THE CLEAN WATER ACT
Sammye Buckner and Tom Chisholm, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on June 11, to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). Buckner was the general manager of the Summitville Consolidated Mining Co. Inc., (SCMC) from April 1988 to January 1991. Chisholm was SCMC’s Environmental Manager from August 1988 to September 1991. Both defendants admitted that they conspired to discharge mine wastes into local streams and also
admitted that they falsified CWA discharge monitoring reports. SCMC operated the Summitvillegold mine located in south central Colorado from 1984 to 1992. SCMC used a cyanide solution to extract gold from ore. Waste from the process was not properly retained on site and was allowed to run off into adjacent creeks and ditches that empty into the Alamosa River. Cyanide is highly toxic and can cause serious health effects in humans, fish and wildlife. SCMC pleaded guilty on May 2, 1996 to CWA violations and to other federal offenses. The company has agreed to pay a fine of $20 million. Subsequently, the Summitville Mine became a Superfund site. Millions of dollars have been spent in clean-up costs at the mine. This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.
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