A plan to vastly expand a limestone mining operation on the northern edge of Glenwood Springs will set this Western Slope tourist town back a century, destroying its burgeoning tourist economy and clogging its streets with hundreds of trucks a day, critics say.
Steve Beckley, owner of Iron Mountain Hot Springs, fears his business on the banks of the Colorado River could be ruined if mining activity alters how water flows and is heated deep beneath the earth’s surface on its way to the facility’s pools.
His concerns are shared by his much older upriver competitor, Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge and Pool. According to a story this week in The Aspen Times, the two businesses penned a letter to the Bureau of Land Management, on whose land the mining would occur, saying the limestone quarry expansion “will obliterate source waters feeding these springs.”
“The water that comes off the Flat Tops, and through this area, is the source of water that feeds the hot springs,” Beckley told The Denver Post on Wednesday. “This is just a really, really bad location for a mine next to a thriving tourism community.”
Iron Mountain Hot Springs sees 275,000 visitors a year, Beckley said.
The proposal to expand the footprint of the Mid-Continent quarry from about 20 acres today to nearly 450 acres over the next few decades comes from Rocky Mountain Resources, a Denver-based mining firm that acquired the nearly 40-year-old limestone quarry in 2016.
According to the Post Independent newspaper in Glenwood Springs, the company aims to blast and crush 5 million tons of rock per year on the mountain overlooking the city. The prospective intensity of the operation, which the paper said could generate 450 round-trip truckloads a day, has prompted several municipalities in the area — including New Castle, Basalt, Rifle and Carbondale — to pass resolutions opposing the plan.
The resolutions cite concerns over impacts the mine could have on tourism, water and air quality, as well as traffic and noise. Glenwood Springs itself is set to launch its own campaign against the mine expansion Friday with a media tour.
There will be a separate launch for the public at noon Saturday at Glenwood Springs Community Center.
The Colorado Tourism Office reported this year that travelers spent a record $22.3 billion across the state in 2018, up 6.7% over the previous record set in 2017.
“For people who want to get away from the hustle and bustle, this could have a dire effect on Glenwood Springs’ tourism-based economy,” said Jeff Peterson, executive director of the Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance, which has a website dedicated to opposing RMR’s proposal.
He said he worries about dust coming off the mountain and settling over the city of 10,000 residents. The BLM has not yet made a decision on whether to allow the expansion to occur.
RMR, in a statement it sent to The Post, said it is “the most intentional, thoughtful and focused owner and operator of the Mid-Continent limestone quarry in decades.”
The company said has high safety and environmental standards. It also would employ 100 people as part of its expansion, making RMR one of Garfield County’s larger employers.
“In a locale lacking economic diversity, RMR represents a healthy commercial alternative, and is developing plans with prospective commercial owners in Glenwood to work in concert with tourism,” the company said.
Limestone is used in food manufacturing additives, as well as in acid mine drainage remediation and wastewater treatment.
Beckley, a petroleum engineer educated at the Colorado School of Mines, said an operation of the proposed size is simply not appropriate so close to a community that depends on its natural resources to survive, he said.
At the very least, he added, the BLM needs to do far more research about the potential impacts from such an operation before giving its blessing.
“I don’t know many vibrant tourist towns trying to get into the mining industry,” he said, noting that for every job the mine provides, many more will be lost on the tourism side.
But if the worst comes to pass and the expanded mine negatively affects the geothermal aquifer that his customers drive miles to enjoy?
“We’ll just have to call it Glenwood … I guess,” he said.
