Silverton’s mining legacy is an all-too-typical one, with formerly productive mines dating from the 1800s through the mid-20th century long shuttered, the town’s economic prospects focused elsewhere and the enduring environmental impacts of the mines remaining unresolved. In Silverton’s case, how to mitigate widespread watershed contamination – and who is responsible – from metal-laden water has been an equally enduring question. In agreeing to oversee and pay for a mitigation and monitoring project, the Environmental Protection Agency is filling its agency role to the town’s and the Animas River’s benefit.
Identifying the exact source responsible for all the zinc, cadmium, iron and aluminum that are compromising water quality in the Animas River and some of its headwaters is an ongoing challenge in the mine-pocked landscape above Silverton. However, the Red and Bonita Mine, a small, unproductive mine from the 19th century, is emitting 500 gallons of water each minute that carries 18 percent of the river’s total heavy-metal load into the Animas. This is a relatively recent problem that erupted in 2006 after Sunnyside Gold Corp. plugged the American Tunnel causing a water backup that eventually made its way to the Red and Bonita mine. Since then, water quality in the Animas River has diminished, threatening aquatic life downstream through San Juan and La Plata counties.
The question since has been threefold: what to do, who must do it and how to pay for it. The EPA has announced that it will install a bulkhead in the Red and Bonita Mine and then monitor the subsequent water quality to track the plug’s effect. The agency is the appropriate entity to undertake such an effort, and this is a significant step below a Superfund designation – an alternate proposal for addressing the mine-contamination problem.
This is a $1.5 million project – a relatively small investment that could reduce the level of pollutants, but is unlikely to stop the metal-leaching overall. There are many potential and likely sources beyond the Red and Bonita Mine, but the combined effects of the bulkhead and both runoff- and groundwater-monitoring programs can set the stage for a larger mitigation project to follow.
The Animas River Stakeholders Group has worked doggedly through a collaborative effort to address the mine-drainage situation. This years-long conversation grappled with various proposals and concerns about responsibility for the pollution, impact of clean-up efforts on Silverton’s economy and cost – both of construction and operation. The EPA stepping in to at least curb the flow of contaminated water is a welcome mitigation effort whose near-immediate timeline should bring some relatively quick relief to the Animas and its headwaters.
By closely monitoring the results, as well as the other effects brought about by the bulkhead in Red and Bonita Mine and stabilized mines nearby, the EPA is responding to the group’s concerns in a pragmatic manner that will address some, but not all of the problems plaguing water quality in the Animas River watershed. It is welcome progress that, at its best, will lead to more comprehensive solutions to follow.
