Mining mill retention pond prompts debate in Victor

VICTOR • For two days, Micki Cain could hear her dogs barking, the cries echoing across the hills and mine building skeletons above this Teller County hamlet.

But when she finally found the border collie mixes that had snuck out the door, it was too late. D.D. was dead, apparently drowned trying to escape a mining mill retention pond across the road and up a hillside. T.J. was alive, but cold and hungry, stuck inside the pit next to his litter-mate’s body.

“I look at this black spot every day and remember my dog floating in the water,” Cain said last week. “Then I think of something else being in here and not being able to get out.”

The plastic-lined pond, on the same hill where William Scott Stratton made his fortune in the 1890s, has become a topic of debate in this town of 400. Some neighbors say the pond is a death trap for animals that could be dangerous for any children who stray into it, and they want it fenced or filled.

But owner Jim Watson points out he is not required to have a fence, since the pond contains rain water and no chemicals, and he has no plans to spend the money.

“I feel very badly for the poor lady who lost her dog,” said Watson, a gold prospector and former mayor of Victor. “But why do people let their pets run wild in a mining district, with all the dangers around here, and trespass on top of that, and never contact the owner or law enforcement?”

Watson said he built the pond 22 years ago, to hold tailings from his Chesapeake Mill, where he would process gold he planned to strike at his nearby Chesapeake Mine.

A New Hampshire native who first came here as a tourist, he hasn’t found any gold, and is in the final stages of reclamation of the mine, but he keeps the pond because he uses the water in experimental methods he is testing to separate rock from gold. The pond is 150 feet wide, 300 feet long, several feet deep, with steep lined embankments to hold in water.

He has found dead animals in the pond before, but they appeared to have been dumped there, or, in the case of a deer hit by a car, injured elsewhere.

Retention ponds are common in the area, and Paul Clarkson, Teller County director of community development, said county ordinances don’t require a fence. Neither do state mining regulations, because the pond has fresh water, not containing chemicals, according to the Colorado Division of Mining, Reclamation and Safety.

“This is a historic mining district. You’ve got to be watching where you’re walking,” said Clarkson. “I think the whole area is loaded with unsafe sites.”

Cain moved here this summer from Cañon City. While aware there was an open retention pond in the area — she can see it from her dining room — she gave it little thought until D.D. and T.J. escaped in early October.
Neighbor Tricia Smith told her to check the pond, because her own dog, a shaggy, friendly and bear-like pet named Pearl, had run off and into the pond three months before.

“It’s amazing she survived, because she is clumsy,” said Smith, who pulled Pearl out of the pond with the help of a rope.

So Cain drove there — though on private property, it is next to a public road – and found her dogs. She figures they chased prairie dogs up the hillside and went down the embankment for a drink. T.J. stayed on a dry part of the pit but D.D. fell in the water and couldn’t climb up the slick liner.

When Cain went in after the dogs, she also get stuck, and had to call for help.

Watson first learned of the incident when one of Cain’s neighbors, Patricia Etters, wrote a letter to newspapers, including The Gazette, wondering if the pond was full of “decaying corpses, animals or maybe even a few missing persons.” Cain also wrote a published letter.

The neighbors say he needs to build a fence to prevent more pets or children from falling in.

Watson said a fence would cost him up to $20,000, and he won’t “commit to an effort that is nothing less than bullying” on the part of the letter-writing neighbors.

“I’m not inclined to bend to their whims,” Watson said.

As to the concern about children, he said, “Who in the world would ever let their children go on mine property has got a real serious problem.”

For Cain, talking about her dog’s death brought tears to her eyes. T.J., the surviving dog, is fine, and has the company of her other family pets.

She doesn’t understand why a fence isn’t required, since the pond is within sight of so many homes, and plans to continue pushing for one.

“She was my baby. I had her since before she was born,” she said.