By Olivia Exstrum, special to the Plaindealer

The secret to cleaning up old mine waste might be in beer.

Well, the waste from making beer, that is.

A new environmental group is putting that theory to the test with an experiment using waste from the Atlas Mill mine site, along with help from high schoolers, science and the byproducts of a local brewery.

Earlier this year, students in Ouray High School science teacher Beth Lakin’s geology class learned about the rich history of mining in the San Jua...