EVEN 4830-001 / ENVS 5100-004  Special Topics:
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Abandoned Mine Remediation

Fall 2003

Course Overview

This new course will introduce students to the historical, technical, legal, political, and social problems associated with the remediation of abandoned hard rock mines in the West.  Multidisciplinary student teams will design remediation solutions with an emphasis on community responsibility and the contributions of the arts and humanities to understanding and implementing technical solutions.

To form the multidisciplinary teams, upper level undergraduate and graduate students will be recruited from a wide variety of programs for the course -- Fine Arts, Environmental Design, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, History, Political Science and Policy, Economics and the Business School, the Center of the American West. 

The course will be led by Prof. Joe Ryan (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering) and Dr. David Stiller (author of "Wounding the West: Montana, Mining, and the Environment").  The instructors, along with guest lecturers, will use the first two-thirds of the class to provide students with the necessary background to deal with abandoned mine and acid mine drainage problems in lectures and field trips.

The last third of the class will focus on the design of remediation plans for a set of abandoned mines in Colorado.  At the end of the class, the student designs will be critiqued by local experts in abandoned mine remediation.