Animas River Toxic Release

[Idabow]

#2685

To those of you who live on, near or will somehow be affected by this, I hope it can be stabilized and one day brought back to its pristine condition. What a terrible situation with many impacts yet to be realized. I was hoping to retire in this area in a year or so, not so sure now.

[Cleland]

#12021

[quote=Idabow]To those of you who live on, near or will somehow be affected by this, I hope it can be stabilized and one day brought back to its pristine condition. What a terrible situation with many impacts yet to be realized. I was hoping to retire in this area in a year or so, not so sure now.[/quote Idabow; sorry to hear about the Animas River! As a cross country trucker I don’t recall the river as I have been across there hundreds of times. Was going to go out there elk hunting but decided on Co. being closer to SD. Was going to hunt Lolo Pass area on horse back.

[Stephen Graf]

#12104

Idabow wrote: To those of you who live on, near or will somehow be affected by this, I hope it can be stabilized and one day brought back to its pristine condition…

I googled Animas River Toxic Release and read an article in the Durango paper about it. It said the river has very little fish in it because of contamination, over many years, from the mines. So it doesn’t appear to be a pristine river.

That said, what a bummer. And I am sure yet another opportunity to learn a lesson will be lost here. Hopefully the EPA will get their act together and get the old mines cleaned up once and for all.

That’s Dave Petersens back yard I expect. Maybe he’ll elaborate sometime.

[DK]

#13015

It certainly is a bummer. I would not let this change your mind about moving here though. I have lived here my entire life and calling the animas gold medal waters has always been a bit of a stretch. I have fished gold metal waters and I would say that the majority of the animas, with the exception of tribal land south of Durango is not gold metal. The animas through town mostly now is polluted by drunk tubers and rafting companies. You can hardly even fish it there are so many people. Anyway hopefully the river will recover with time.

DK

[Idabow]

#13071

I think I used the word “Pristine” to describe the difference from where it was to where it is now. I understand that most rivers that run through a town are usually not gold medal quality and usually show signs of over use and abuse. I’m sure that it won’t change my mind on living there, just such a bad situation with hopefully no log-lasting toxic effects to the citizens of the area. The other rivers that I have seen in Colorado that have been affected like this include the Alamosa river which had a bad leak/release over 30 years ago, it’s still a dead river for the most part. Hope all goes well for you and that it is indeed mitigated to the satisfaction of those who rely on it.

[Fallguy]

#14696

We are being pushed in Minnesota by copper mining interests to allow sulfide mining here. The hidden language in the agreement leaves us with the same thing as in Colorado. Mine pits full of toxic waste that the Tax Payers have to deal with. Hopefully this tragic event well open some eyes and they see the 500 or 1000 jobs for 20 years are not worth the risk.

[Mark Turton]

#14936

This has even hit the breakfast news in the UK!

Looks like toxic soup, we filter heavy metal from coolant at work I know just how hard it is to remove it from a controlled environment, cleaning it up in a river system could take decades, will take decades.

Sad day.

Mark.

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