United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service – Southwestern Region Coronado National Forest Arizona
Environmental Cleanup Actions
The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service begins this month an environmental cleanup of the Lead Queen Abandoned Mine (Site) situated within the Harshaw Creek watershed. The Site is located approximately six miles south of Patagonia, Arizona, within the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest and is only accessed by 4×4 or high clearance vehicles.
The objective of this cleanup is to reduce or eliminate the downstream movement of waste rock containing elevated concentrations of arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals, as well as acid mine drainage to Harshaw Creek.
Lead Queen Adit
Past mining activities left behind abandoned horizontal openings (adits) and vertical openings (shafts), and littered the landscape with waste rock material.
The Forest Service hired an environmental firm to perform the cleanup and work should be completed by mid-February 2016. Environmental Cost Management, Inc (ECM) from California was hired for the amount of $361,689.58 of taxpayers’ money to clean up the abandoned mine site on public land.
Lead Queen waste rock
The cleanup involves construction activities using heavy equipment to consolidate waste rock into a single underground contained area, cap the waste rock with native soil, and seal 4 of 6 mine openings such as adits and shafts. Polyurethane Foam (PUF) will be used to seal two adits and two shafts. The final PUF face will be covered with clean local soil and rock to prevent UV light degradation of the foam. The other two mine openings will be closed using bat-friendly gates.
In some areas of the Site, adits and shafts serve as conduits carrying large amounts of tunnel water which potentially cause floods in the downstream channels. Storm runoff carries concentrations of heavy metals stored in these adits and shafts on the surface.
Scope of Work
Lead Queen toxic, heavy metal drainage
The Site Cleanup will consist of excavating waste rock, hauling and placing waste rock material in a consolidation area, constructing a series of gabion walls, improving existing road for equipment access, constructing temporary access roads to mines, closing mine features, installing bat- friendly gates, and seeding and mulching of all disturbed areas.
A series of gabion walls will mitigate the transport of aluminum precipitate and red-orange sludge and sediment downstream of the Site and into the lower reaches of the Harshaw Creek watershed. These gabion walls will be installed in the drainage bottom at various locations downstream of the Site.
CERCLA Time Critical Action Removal Action
Sampling at Lead Queen mine site
The Forest Service is exercising its authority under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA; 42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.) to conduct the cleanup activities at the Site. The Time Critical Removal Action Approval Memorandum documents and explains the commencement of a CERCLA Removal Action at the Site. The Forest Service’s role is to protect the public health and welfare and the environment and to respond to a hazardous substance release on lands under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service, pursuant to the authority found in 42 U.S.C. 9604(a), Executive Order 12580, and 7 C.F.R. 2.60(a)(39).
Public Information
For additional information about the cleanup, please contact:
Eli Curiel Jr., P.E.,
Project On-Scene Coordinator
USDA Forest Service
Coronado National Forest
300 West Congress Street Tucson, AZ 85701
(520) 388-8413
Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Related links:
Forest Service Outlines Clean Up Plans for Abandoned Lead Queen Mine https://www.patagoniaalliance.org/forest-service-outlines-clean-up-plans-for-abandoned-lead-queen-mine/
Video: Leaking Historic Patagonia, Arizona Mines https://youtu.be/uEgaFhT5RXw
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