A comprehensive effort to find out what land-use practices are contributing to contamination of the Animas River in northern New Mexico is underway.

The New Mexico Energy Mineral and Natural Resources Department has put up $287,000 that will carry researchers from Silverton-based Mountain Studies Institute through June 2016.

“We’re building on what we learned from surveys of the Animas in 2006 and 2010,” said Aaron Kimple, an MSI project leader. “We began to get an idea of potential sources of nutrient loading.

“When all analyses of the present research are done in 2016, the findings will be presented to the public to find potential solutions,” Kimple said. “This is not a top-down project because the community is going to be involved.”

The impetus for the study was nutrient loading that at times has exceeded New Mexico standards, said Melissa May, a natural resource specialist with the San Juan Soil & Water Conservation District in Aztec.

Excess nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, create unfavorable conditions for aquatic ecosystems.

Forty-eight sites will be visited three times – in April, July and October – to test water for nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and E. coli, study effects of algae and analyze a nitrogen isotope (N-15) to determine whether pollution comes from organic or inorganic sources.

Among the 48 sites between the Colorado-New Mexico line and the confluence of the Animas and San Juan rivers will be the Animas River itself, its tributaries and seasonal creeks that carry storm or agricultural runoff.

After the last survey in October, the remainder of the time to June 2016, will be dedicated to analysis and mapping.

daler@durangoherald.com