Dear Action Line: While walking the Animas River Trail recently, we noticed that there are some serious problems with the stairs/path (built with GOCO funds?) connecting the trail to the Durango Mall parking lot. This walkway looks to be on the brink of failure. Who is responsible for this drainage problem? The entire area behind the car wash is bare ground and what looks to be a retention pond. Is all this silt ending up in the Animas River? – Path Ponderers
Dear Ponderers: Would you be surprised to know that this isn’t actually a city path? (Yet.)
This question turned out to be an interesting one to unravel. Where to start …
A few million years ago, after the oceans receded and the sedimentary layers solidified. … Yeah, maybe that’s too far back.
OK, so, skip past the Mesozoic Era, and on to recent Cenozoic, when the Champion Xpress Carwash got its construction approval. At that time, the city of Durango required the new trail connection and a public access easement as part of the approval, said Dan Armentano, a planner with Durango’s Community Development Department. He noted that the easement has not become official, and that the trail connection “is within an active construction site on private property.”
“The easement will be executed before the car wash can receive a Certificate of Occupancy and open for business,” he said.
That said, people are starting to use the connection because, well, it’s there and there are no armed guards or even plastic tape warning people to stay off it.
The connection was constructed last year. Great Outdoors Colorado funds were not used, said Parks and Recreation Interim Director Sara Humphrey. Then, on Dec. 18, some sort of water deluge occurred there.
“It appears that this erosion event … was an unfortunate consequence of unanticipated construction issues at the new Champion Xpress Carwash,” Armentano said. “(City) engineering staff are working with the project team to determine if site conditions and designs contributed to the problem and if modifications are necessary to ensure the longevity of the new trail.”
He said that the car wash developers regraded and recompacted the disturbed areas as of Dec. 27. And he added that “appropriate environmental enforcement procedures for the sediment which likely discharged to the Animas River because of the erosion event is ongoing.”
Action Line went over to check out the new trail connection on Tuesday and found that, in the interim, someone or something had sneakily covered it with a fairly deep layer of snow. So it was impossible to tell what work had been done. Armentano said that he saw photos taken by the car wash development team showing that the eroded areas were regraded and recompacted, and the work was done Dec. 27, before the snow fell.
The deep layer of snow seems a little suspicious, and all you naïve, unsuspecting people will probably chalk it up to the “whims of nature,” but Action Line isn’t sure whether to buy that or not. Isn’t this the definition of a “cover-up?”
It’s also really icy over there right now, what with the shadow of the once-proud Durango Mall looming over the access from the south. So if you go to, uh, look (wink wink) at the new connection, just be careful.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Remember when we all gathered in a chain along the then seven miles of Animas River Trail from Home Depot to 32nd Street? Pop quiz: Name the date. (No cheating.)
