For many years now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has had a presence in San Juan County.
Since the 2015 Gold King Mine spill, and the superfund designation of the Bonita Peak Mining District, our relationship has become even closer out of the necessity to work together on the cleanup effort.
Since the spill, the EPA has reimbursed the town of Silverton and San Juan County for most of the early costs related to the incident, but I have deep concerns about future financial reimbursements and future project funding if Congress approves a massively reduced EPA budget for 2018. The administration has proposed a 31 percent, or $2.6 billion, reduction to next year’s EPA budget.
The agency has played an indisputably critical role in addressing a mine pollution problem in the Animas River headwaters that dates back more than a century. The Bonita Peak Mining District site, placed on the National Priorities List in 2016, encompasses 48 mining-related locations that contaminate the Animas River watershed. The EPA has committed to working with the local governments and the general public in meeting cleanup goals and has reassured us from the very beginning that critical monies for the cleanup effort will be available.
The Bonita Peak Mining District is just one of about 20 superfund sites in Colorado, and thousands of cleanup sites nationwide, that stand to lose funding. That means remedial efforts at these sites could be delayed or brought to a standstill. Colorado receives about $54.7 million in EPA grants each year to cover research, regulation enforcement, and, of course, cleanup and restoration projects for our land, air and water. Under the administration’s budget proposal, available funding to address the state’s superfund sites would be reduced by one-third, while funds for the state’s 449 brownfield sites would be cut by more than 20 percent.
Silverton and San Juan County continue to strengthen our relationship with the EPA during this critical discovery period and we hope that our combined knowledge will lead to successful remediation in our basin. We would like to use a success here as a template for much needed cleanups in other parts of Colorado, as well as throughout the entire West. Full funding for the EPA in general, and for superfund projects in particular, is an absolute necessity if we are to accomplish these goals.
In February 2016, the governing boards of San Juan County and Silverton unanimously supported superfund designation for the mining network in our community and committed to work with the EPA on cleanup. These efforts cannot advance without the agency’s financial support. As they move forward with the budgeting process, I ask Congress to carefully consider small communities like ours when they contemplate EPA budget cuts. Without a fully funded EPA, we can’t expect to make progress.
Peter Mckay is a San Juan County Commissioner and 25-year resident of Silverton. Reach him at Commckay@hotmail.com.
