Watching the Herald’s news coverage of the Gold King Mine spill over the better part of a week, I am again reminded of the incredible legacy left by my friend Rob Blair, who founded the Mountain Studies Institute.
I attended the last public meeting on the spill and was again reminded that if Mountain Studies Institute had not been “Johnny (or Joan) on the spot” regarding the plume of mine wastewater that flowed down the Animas, we citizens of Durango would not have had the data to know what our river was like before the spill as a comparison to what it needs to return to.
Thanks again to Rob for having the foresight to have created such an organization to help direct all of us as the cleanup continues on the Animas.
George L. Richardson
Durango
