Durango Nature Studies is taking precautions at its summer camp south of Durango as a result of poor water quality in the lower Florida River.
The San Juan Basin Health Department has said that in-river activities are safe as long as participants don’t drink the water and wash their hands afterward, Greg Brand, the agency’s director of environmental health, said Friday.
“We’ve taken the added precaution of having a hand-sanitation station at river edge in case they put their hands in their mouth,” said Sally Shuffield, executive director of the Durango Nature Studies.
“We also tell the kids not to put their heads under water,” she said.
Summer camp participants can still float with their head above water on a still stretch of the river, Shuffield said.
Summer camp kids also wade along the edge of the river exploring, catching frogs and crawdads and building sand castles.
Shuffield said the Animas River Stakeholders Group and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe have studied water quality in the Florida River at the Durango Nature Center, located about one mile north of its confluence with the Animas River.
Brand said that total coliform, the collection of bacteria, at the nature center is at a safe level as long as people don’t drink the water and wash their hands after being in the river.
But he pointed out that because the river is flowing, one is never sure what is passing by.
herald@durangoherald.com
