Polluted water leaking from thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado’s mountains is turning wetlands orange and dumping toxic dissolved metals in the headwaters of many of the state’s rivers. But people who want to fix the problem are hampered by the very federal laws meant to protect the environment. Organizations and local governments that want to fix the acidic drainage from a mine outside of Alma — and the hundreds of thousands of other abandoned mines across the West — are hopeful about new legislation under consideration in Congress. By removing liability burdens, the bill would finally give them more leeway to stop the pollution seeping into the streams relied upon for drinking water, recreation, and fish and animal habitat.