By Carole McWilliams
Times Senior Staff Writer
Let's get the evil incompetent EPA!!
They caused the toxic mine spill that turned the Animas River orange before flowing into the San Juan River to affect Aztec, Farmington, and the Navajo Nation.
Actually, no. The EPA and their hapless private contractor may have been the ones at the long-abandoned Gold King Mine when it happened, and there may be plenty to criticize about their response. But it is mining practices from 100 years ago that caused this.
The Animas looks all pretty again. Raft trips are happening again, although probably with a lot fewer customers than they would have otherwise. Irrigation ditches are drawing water from the river again.
But toxic mine waste is still coming out of the Gold King Mine, hundreds of gallons per minute, and from many other abandoned mines above Silverton and any mountain area with a mining heritage. It was happening before the big spill made the national news.
The Gold King Mine water is now being collected in ponds and treated. So why wasn't that done before? Lack of funding? Or it just takes a disaster before anything gets done?
One good outcome of the big spill is that more people now are aware of mine pollution, so maybe more will be done to address the problem. But a not-so-good outcome is the anecdotal reports of the effects on tourism from the Gold King Mine spill and how that could continue well beyond this summer for the whole area, not just Durango or Silverton.
Prospective visitors don't distinguish between the Animas drainage and Vallecito, for instance, which is a separate river drainage.
Like them or not, tourists are an essential part of the local economy. It will be interesting to see sales tax figures for Durango and the county for July and August after the spill. Sales in Durango are part of county sales tax. A share of county sales tax is a major revenue source for Bayfield and Ignacio, so they will be affected too.
The EPA says people, businesses, and local governments can apply for compensation for their economic losses. Applying is one thing. Actually getting compensation is another. And it's hard to document losses from tourists who don't come, this summer or in the future.
It's ironic that the mining heritage is a big tourist draw in itself. The old mining structures perched on mountain ledges are fascinating and amazing. But the toxic legacy is extremely expensive to fix, if it can be fixed. That cost is falling on us, not the long-gone mine operators.
It's also ironic that people who love to bash the EPA are now pulling a bait and switch to use the mine spill as justification to block the EPA from imposing tighter rules on coal-fired power plants, methane emissions from oil and gas wells, and other efforts to keep us from passing a toxic legacy of human-caused global climate change to future generations.
