Abandoned Mine Cleanup Project in Northern San Juan Receives National Award

A Utah project to clean up abandoned mines in Northern San Juan County was given a national award.

Named the Kane Creek Project, officials covered an 85-square mile study area in northern San Juan and southern Grand counties.

The project identified 206 abandoned uranium mines with closures in the rugged terrain resulting in the project being awarded the 2026 National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs (NAAMLP) Hardrock Physical Safety Reclamation Award.

Katie Potter is a project manager for the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program, the project addressed three mining districts including the upper and lower Kane Creek District and the Brumley Ridge mining district.

Potter explained the project was one of eight finalists for the award based on the difficulty based on existing conditions.

Contractors used a variety of reclamation techniques to secure the hazardous mine openings, including backfills, masonry walls, polyurethane foam plugs, and fabricated steel gates and grates.

Potter explained those challenges for the project included steep sandstone cliffs, and a wide variance in area from the Colorado River up to the La Sal Mountains.

While some of the areas could be accessed by historic mining roads there were several that required workers access by foot without machinery. That led to some creative problem solving to close the mine openings.

“We actually used a helicopter to deliver materials to some sites where we weren't granted machinery access," Potter explained. "And so they flew in cement blocks and mortar and water or they’d fly in the metal bars for grates and welders and generators.”

Other challenges included protecting wildlife habitat, in particular bats that use mines for roosting and hibernation as well as challenges with restrictions for work in cliff areas due to raptor nesting.

“Our most secure and cost-effective closure method is backfilling," Potter said. "If there's material on site that we can back fill an opening with, it's less susceptible to vandalism. If we have concerns or considerations of wildlife or cultural history. Then we'll try to install a metal grate that allows bats to enter and exit a mine but keeps people out.”

Still other challenges remained in planning and carrying out the project.

“We also have to preserve that mining history," Potter said. "We work with tribal consultation and archaeologists to protect cultural features at our mine sites. And we did closures on private land, state land, federal land. So coordinating access with all those different stakeholders was a big aspect of this project”

Despite being remote for closure work some of the openings were right next to bike trails and other highly visited areas which can cause safety hazards including unstable rock formations inside abandoned mines, as well as the unseen dangers with the presence of radon leftover from uranium mining.

“We have a great team in the office here for the state," Potter said. "Our team here in Salt Lake does all the reclamation for the whole state. So we love when we can come out in the field and see places that we don't usually get to see. We're grateful to be recognized for the work we're doing.”

The construction phase had a total contractual expenditure of $1,085,678.50, funded through grants from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), the U.S. Department of Energy's Defense-Related Uranium Mines (DOE-DRUM) program, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In 1977 the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed which has since required mining companies to provide funds to the government in form of reclamation bonds to pay for eventual cleanup of a closed mine. Before that mining companies could walk away from an operation whenever it was no longer profitable.

“When our program started in 1983 we had about 17,000 abandoned mines in the state," Potter explained. "We've closed about 7,000 of those in the life of our program. So, there's still a lot of work to do in the state of Utah, but we're chipping away at it. The goal someday would be to have them all reclaimed and not have these safety hazards for the public, but right now we're working away at it.”