A former participant in an unofficial effort to eliminate toxic mine waste around Silverton has asked federal environmental and state health authorities to throw their full weight behind a rigorous cleanup program.
Enough of the 20-year-old, consensus-driven process of the Animas River Stakeholders Group, Robert Robinson said in a letter last week to the Colorado State Department of Public Health and Environment and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That effort, though well-intended, is not enough.
“As the responsible officials, I urge you both to bring the full force and resources of regulatory processes,” Robinson, a former Bureau of Land Management employee based in the Denver area, wrote in the Dec. 10 letter. He specifically mentions the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known more commonly as Superfund.
The major concern is contamination of the Animas River from the escape of toxic metals into Animas tributaries. Four abandoned mines in the Gladstone area north of Silverton are the main culprits.
“Effective mine reclamation and/or water treatment should be put in place with definitive milestones so that the current situation does not continue indefinitely and certainly not another two decades,” Robinson wrote.
The letter is addressed to Shaun McGrath, the administrator at the EPA regional office in Denver, and Dr. Larry Wolk, chief medical officer at the state health department.
“This may be a Quixotic effort on my part,” Robinson said in a telephone interview Monday from his home in Wheat Ridge. “But we’ll see where it goes.”
Peter Butler, one of three Animas River Stakeholders Group coordinators, said the group does what it can.
“We’re a voluntary group comprised of many different people with many different perspectives,” Butler said Tuesday. “We do operate by consensus.”
Robinson, retired from the BLM’s Division of Energy, Lands and Minerals, representing the agency viewpoint at monthly meetings of the stakeholders group, which formed in 1994. Among other members of the loosely formed group are representatives of federal, state and local agencies, environmental, water and mining interests as well as interested members of the public.
The group’s waste-mitigation projects have been many, but limited in scope, because the group doesn’t enjoy good Samaritan protection against lawsuits that could arise from violations of the Clean Water Act.
Federal officials have held off naming Silverton and surrounding San Juan County a Superfund site and have moved in themselves to stanch the toxic outflows on the strength of the dedication of stakeholders group members.
Superfund designation is anathema to many San Juan County residents who fear that being known as a polluted area would curtail investment and tourism, the lifeblood of the town.
Robinson, in his letter, noted that stakeholders group projects improved water quality for a time. But conditions have deteriorated, he said. Invertebrate aquatic species that fish consume have declined, and some fish populations have disappeared.
The collaborative approach of the Animas River Stakeholders Group, known informally as the ARSG, isn’t working, Robinson said in the interview.
“The ARSG is tilted too much to local citizens and mining companies,” Robinson said. “The wider interests of the community aren’t represented given the very high amount of public land in the county.”
San Juan County is owned 92 percent by local, state and federal entities.
“The time has come for more aggressive cleanup,” Robinson said. “Superfund sites in the healthy communities of Leadville and Idaho Springs show that fear is misplaced. Aquatic life has rebounded in streams below mine reclamation there.”
Robinson said that Kinross Gold, now the owner of the abandoned Sunnyside Mine, should shoulder the cleanup load. Early efforts to stop toxic outpourings from Sunnyside resulted in leaks from other mines.
Kinross, which operates internationally, can afford the cost, Robinson said.
Robinson said in the phone interview that if he doesn’t hear from the EPA or the state health department, he’ll try to “ramp it up” by contacting some nongovernmental organizations or talking to U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden.
“As for the ARSG, the first 20 years were OK,” Robinson said. “But it’s time to try something new.”
daler@durangoherald.com
