Potentially Dangerous Mine Sludge Reaches Utah Waterways

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Animas River, La Planta Co. - Photo: Colorado Emergency Management

DURANGO, Colo., Aug. 10 (Gephardt Daily and UPI) — The toxic wastewater spill which has fouled hundreds of miles of pristine waterways in southwestern Colorado has reached the state of Utah.

According to Evan O’Keefe, of the San Juan Geographical Systems, the plume has now reached the San Juan River and has spread as far south as Aneth.

A statement released Monday night by the Utah Department of Water Quality said the muddy water flowing through the San Juan River made it hard to tell exactly where the plume was.

“Turbid water conditions in the San Juan River made it difficult for DWQ scientists to tell if the spill plume entered Utah today. Field values from sites that were sampled today showed the pH of the water ranged from 8.0 to 8.1, which is similar to normal background conditions. By comparison, pH values near the spill site were acidic, ranging from 3.74 to 4.68 after the mine water release. 

“DWQ will receive test results tomorrow from the samples that were taken by division scientists on August 8-9, 2015. Data from these tests will show baseline levels of metals, total suspended solids, and dissolved solids in the San Juan River and will be used as comparison points for any changes that might be observed once the spill plume mixes with river water.”

Both the Bureau of Land Management and the Glen Canyon Recreation Area are warning visitors to avoid the water in the San Juan River, as well as the arm of the San Juan River heading into Lake Powell.

The spill of wastewater from an abandoned gold mine in southwest Colorado is triple the size the Environmental Protection Agency first estimated, officials said Sunday.

EPA agents unintentionally released 3 million gallons of contaminated water from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River on Wednesday during an inspection. They originally believed 1 million gallons of acidic water contaminated with zinc, iron, cooper and other heavy metals broke free of a barrier of unconsolidated debris.

The EPA revised its estimate Sunday at a community meeting in Durango, Colo, during which residents called for the federal agency to be held accountable for cleanup of the sludge.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Gov. John Hickenlooper declared a state of disaster emergency in response to the spill, allocating $500,000 to pay for response and technical assessments.

“Our priority remains to ensure public safety and minimize environmental impacts,”Hickenlooper said in a statement. “By declaring a disaster emergency, we are able to better support impacted businesses and communities with state resources. We will work closely with the EPA to continue to measure water quality as it returns to normal, but also to work together to assess other mines throughout the state to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Photo by Office of Emergency Management in La Plata County Colorado

It’s unclear what kind of environmental impact the spill will have on Colorado and now New Mexico as the contaminated water flows downstream.

Mustard yellow water flowed down the Animas River, changing its color and leaving a thick sediment that stretched south to Durango. The EPA said it would be collecting samples of the river water and conducting visual observations to determine what, if any, affect the spill will have on the environment.

The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office closed the river from Durango south to the New Mexico state line to all watercraft and recreational users. Officials warned agricultural water users to shut off their water intakes.

Tom Cech, the director of One World One Water Center MSU-Denver, told KDVR-TV in Denver the situation is “not good.

“Basically water can dissolve rocks that are in the mountains on the west slope and as those minerals dissolve and release into the stream, the heavy metals can cause lots of issues,” he said.

“The long-term effects of this event will depend on the flow of the river in future years,” Cech said. “If we have good snowpack and flushing flows where the rivers rise in the springtime and those contaminants are flushed out it could cleanse itself sooner. If we have drought where it doesn’t rain or snow very much where the rivers are low those contaminants can hang around for a long time.”

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