As one of the founding members of the Animas River Stakeholders Group back in 1994, I don’t want to demean the efforts of the group. From the private individuals who spent their time and energy, to the governmental agencies involved, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, to the mining industry – particularly the Sunnyside Mine – who contributed substantial resources to the effort, I gained the utmost respect. I also need to mention the Environmental Protection Agency, who has funded much of the Stakeholders’ work. They have all done an excellent job in determining the sources of pollution in the upper basin of the Animas River and in working to cleanup many of those sources.
But, in retrospect, it has become clear that the collaborative effort was a mistake. It appears to me that the EPA yielded to the wishes of the residents of San Juan County too much. It would have been better for everyone had the EPA declared the basin a Superfund site and proceeded with the very expensive remediation the basin requires.
Had Superfund been in place since 1994, we would have had a water-treatment plant in place by now, and we would not have seen the steady increase in heavy-metals contaminates that was occurring before the latest catastrophe. And, without a doubt, the Gold King Mine would have been handled long before now.
Hindsight is 20/20, and I am as guilty as anyone. When I left the group, I had hoped the collaborative process was on its way to success. But, clearly, the problems are far beyond the scope of anyone but the deepest of deep pockets. And that is the EPA Superfund.
Michael Black
Durango
