In the Opinion section (Herald, Aug. 7) there were two points of view on the Animas River. The first, by Shere Byrd of Fort Lewis College and the San Juan Basin Board of Health, speaks of community wide data gathering and sharing with the purpose of making the Animas River ecosystem as healthy and safe as possible. In short, the community working together to make things better.
The other, from U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, is an attack on a government agency that was sent in to make a terrible situation better, and in the process has become a whipping boy for politicians like U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, and Gardner. Both are of a party easily recognized by its antipathy to anything speaking of the common good, such as cleaning up a mess left by unregulated private enterprise. You may remember that after the Summitville disaster, Tipton voted against a modest royalty on mining, to be used for cleaning up future disasters.
Sen. Gardner should do something for his country for a change. Since 1872, the General Mining Act has allowed private enterprise to walk away from its messes, leaving them for the public to try to clean up. How about a rewrite of this outdated law?
Christopher Isensee
Durango
