central city, clear creek

NEAR TOWN

The discovery of gold near Idaho Springs, Central City and Black Hawk in 1859 played a significant role in Colorado’s gold rush. For the next 20 years, the Black Hawk/Central City area was the leading mining center in Colorado primarily due to the construction of mills to process the gold and silver mined nearby. The silver crash in the 1890s brought a decline in mining to the area, but mining remained an important industry in Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties until about 1950. Only a limited number of mines are currently in operation. The Central City/Clear Creek Superfund Site consists of a 400-square mile watershed extending from the Continental Divide east to near Golden. The site is located in Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties. Popular for activities like fishing, rafting, kayaking, and gold panning, it also serves as a drinking water source for over 500,000 people in the Northwest Denver Metro area. In September of 1983, the Central City/Clear Creek site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL), or Superfund list. Historic gold mining and mine wastes left behind in the Clear Creek basin contaminated the watershed. Elevated levels of metals in Clear Creek were the driving factors in the listing of the site. Only a small fraction of this watershed is actually impacted by the historical mining operations making cleanup more difficult. Because mine wastes are scattered throughout the watershed, cleanup goals focus on improving water quality rather than individual tasks.