John,

The Arkansas River turned red in the 1980s due to heavy metal contamination from Leadville, Colorado’s mines, mills, and smelters. But after decades of intense clean-up efforts, the river is finally healthy again and the tiny town of Leadville has become an eco-tourism destination.

That is why the area’s residents are fighting against a permit that would allow CJK Milling and Union Milling companies to reopen the old Leadville Mill and expand it to extract tiny pieces of gold from old mining waste with a “cyanide leaching” process.

This corporate scheme would put at risk everything the town has fought so hard to achieve. The milling process would release toxic dust into the air, use nearly 10 million gallons of fresh water a year, and risk contaminating the Arkansas River and local families’ wells with cyanide.

Sign the petition to demand that state and county officials deny CJK and Union’s permit to reopen and expand the Leadville Mill.

Barrick Gold. Imperial Oil. And now CJK and Union Milling. All four companies make their money by going into small communities with greedy extraction schemes that result in massive amounts of toxic waste water. And they always say their systems to store all that waste water and protect against leaks are 'impenetrable.'

But accidents always happen. And it’s the surrounding communities who suffer when toxic levels of cyanide, mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals wind up in their rivers, wells, and soil.

Will you add your name to the petition to save Leadville and the Arkansas River from cyanide contamination?

Tens of thousands of Ekō members like you have taken action to support communities around the world who are trying to get Barrick and Imperial to clean up after the water contamination has already happened. This is your chance to help a community stop a corporate extraction scheme before the damage is done.