An old mine tailings pile was found by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to be discharging acidic leachate to a nearby creek, thereby affecting water quality downstream for several miles. The owner of the tailings pile had a local environmental consultant develop a remediation plan that involved building and operating a leachate collection and treatment system. This system would have required decades of operation and was estimated to cost over $10 million. However, even this plan was deemed infeasible because TCEQ would not allow discharge of even the treated leachate into the creek.

After reviewing this claim, Roux Associates proposed a passive engineered wetlands treatment system to address leachate. Coupled with the engineered wetland, Roux proposed an enhanced vegetative cap and recirculation of treated leachate to the vegetated cap for uptake by the plants. This plan was approved by TCEQ and is currently being implemented with an estimated savings of over $5 million over the previous remediation plan.