Arizona’s vast mineral wealth fueled its economic growth, but left behind tens of thousands of abandoned mining sites. Many were never fully documented.
Arizona’s three public universities have developed new tools to help the state manage the risks associated with abandoned mines.
“As a result of this research, we have a much better idea," said Karen Peters, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. "It's in the neighborhood of 44,000 sites. That's a very important piece of data for us to understand in order for us to tackle the issues that are presented by abandoned mine lands."
Peters said those range from the risk of people falling into an open shaft to surface water contamination. The universities developed a centralized map of the abandoned sites and how they intersect with sensitive landscapes.
They also created a risk assessment tool to help identify where abandoned mine hazards may pose the greatest risks and where resources can make the most difference.
"We want to attack the problem of abandoned mine lands in our state in an orderly way, addressing the sites with the highest risk, rather than just encountering a site or getting a complaint about a site and devoting resources to it when there's a much more threatening site just a mile down the road," Peters said.
The work was funded by a Regents’ Grant from the Arizona Board of Regents.
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