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TELLURIDE

The 566-acre Valley Floor property is located immediately west of the developed boundary of the Town of Telluride along the San Miguel River (River). The property, owned and managed by the Town of Telluride (Town), is protected as public Open Space in perpetuity with a Conservation Easement. The River flows through the entire length of the property and is joined by surface and ground water flows from four headwater tributaries within the property. The River within the project area is a heavily impacted by approximately 23–acres of deposited tailings and 900 feet of channelization. Currently in Reach 6, the river cuts directly through eroding tailings on both banks which contributes to water quality degradation and poor aquatic life conditions due to the presences of heavy metals.

The intent of the Reach 5-6 River Restoration and Tailing Remediation is to consolidate and stabilize existing tailings, remove River interaction with tailings, create a naturally functioning river system and mitigate past channelization impacts through hydrology, channel morphology and water quality improvements. The main components of the project are the removal and remediation of mine tailings, re-alignment of 3,300 feet of River through clean soils away from tailings (Reach 6) and abandonment of a 900-foot channelized section creating a new 1,300-foot meandering channel (Reach 5).