Editor’s note: This story has been changed to clarify the various factors that led to the Cripple Creek mine’s violations of permits.

High amounts of iron were detected in water drained this spring from the Cripple Creek and Victor mine because of an error in data reporting, the mine confirmed last week.

The high iron levels were one of three major data errors that led to false violations of one of the mine’s water quality permits, said Jane Mannon, a spokeswoman for the mine.

The mine’s Carlton Tunnel, which drains water from the mine into Fourmile Creek, is carefully monitored for mineral discharges every quarter. Typically, the state of Colorado requires data from January through March for its water quality permits, however, due to a lack of measurable water in March, the Cripple Creek mine has been granted an exception to report data in April.

But for some reason, when computer systems received no reports in March, a violation was triggered, said Mannon. The mine has explained to the state that there was no actual violation in reporting.

A second red flag was falsely raised by another error that indicated there was too much iron in the water shuttling through the Carlton Tunnel. There are no limits on how much iron the mine can put into the water, so the mine was not in violation of its iron amounts, Mannon said.

The mine had yet another problem with data reporting when it incorrectly reporting some information in May that has since been corrected, said Mannon.

The mine has three permits that allows it to discharge water from the mine into the environment, said Patrick Pfaltzgraff, director of the state’s water quality control division, which oversees the permits. Any mine or facility that releases pollutants into water must have a permit from the state to do so, Pfaltzgraff said.

The legal amount of pollutants for each permit can vary depending on the watershed, and for areas with more pollution sometimes daily monitoring is required.

The Carlton Tunnel drains into a watershed that is relatively low on pollutants compared with the South Platte River watershed to the north. Fourmile Creek is a tributary of the Arkansas River, which flows through Pueblo and into Kansas.

The state is given the authority to issue those permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, which collects data on discharges from mines and puts them on a website. But a violation of a permit is not always what it seems to be because data errors can often trigger it, Pfaltzgraff said.

For an instance like this, the state will likely take no action if the mine gives them the correct data.

“They need to provide the corrected information to us, but it doesn’t mean enforcement in terms of formal enforcement,” he said. “The likely outcome will be there won’t be a formal enforcement (once they) correct the reporting.”