Hats off to Gov. Hickenlooper and our government officials for putting the pressure on to get our river back on track and, just as important, to get serious about preventing it from happening again. In a way, this whole ugly event might be a blessing because the problem has been exposed worldwide and, hopefully, won’t be forgotten after a few years.

However, there is another issue that we can do something about to provide a much better future. When Hickenlooper took water out of the Animas for a drink, I guarantee it was not downstream from our wastewater plant in Santa Rita Park.

I have been fishing the Animas River for 17 years, and the section below where the treated wastewater is returned to the river has slowly degraded. The last time I fished it, I found a stretch of river that had a chemical smell and no life under water. I said to myself, “I am not fishing here again.”

This summer, I took my granddaughters to Santa Rita to watch the rafters, and much to my embarrassment, they wanted to know what that “awful smell” was.

I am not a city planner, but I do know Durango and the county have grown and will continue to do so. We have neither planned nor budgeted very well for a new waste treatment plant, and now we have a big decision to make.

Santa Rita Park has become a major hub of water sports and other tourist activities. Our tourist bureau is even located there. It does not make sense to me to build or remodel a sewer plant right in the middle of one of the biggest attractions in our town.

I am aware of some of the many issues involved in moving the treatment plant and cost is certainly a huge factor. It’s going to be expensive no matter what we do, but I hope that when my granddaughters bring their children here for a visit they won’t say, “It still stinks like it did when I was little. What were they thinking?”

Sam Stites

Durango