Bowsie,
If you look back in the history of Colorado Gold, you will see that there is support for the new method of tailing removal and storage, called "dry stacking". This is an innovative method of removing the water used to process the ore before it is stored as tailings. Removing the water equates to a significantly reduced amount of waste water reaching the surrounding streams and leaching into the groung water.
One of the owners of the POW mill is very active in the reclamation process of not only the CGFIA property, but the whole area surrounding Silverton. He is part of a group organized for the environmental stabilization and recovery of the Silverton area.
Colorado's Division of Reclamation and Mine Safety (DRMS) is the gatekeeper to environmental standards for the mining industry. They have been very tough on ALL mining operations. (that is one of the reasons CGFIA has been delayed reopening the mill.) At present, they have approved almost all the environmental requirements to restart the mill. The final step is the submission of the engineered design for the dry stack area. As per the most recent quarterly report by CGFIA, this is slated to be submitted by December 21. (I may be slightly off on that date, but it is in that time frame.)
So, to answer your concern, the environmental question is behind CGFIA. As long as they stay within the approved methods outlined in their plan submitted and approved by the DRMS, there will be no problems.
Locally, the mill has the support of the community. It has been published in the local papers. Check out the Silverton Standard for those articles. I believe they have a search engine for their website. You can link to them in the sticky above, posted by Optimiss.
Don't take my word for it, Do your own research! Then you will know it's true!
