From The Durango Herald (Jonathan Romeo):
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday sent a letter to Silverton officials proposing a Superfund site for the discharging mine district responsible for degrading water quality in the Animas River…
In his letter, Superfund remedial program director Bill Murray inches toward meeting Silverton’s terms, albeit under the legalese of a large bureaucratic federal agency.
“The EPA acknowledges that there is a vast amount of local knowledge, information and expertise relating to the potential Superfund site, and will actively involve the Town and County governments in the Superfund process to the maximum extent practicable,” Murray wrote.
Murray goes on to say the EPA is committed to considering new technologies for remediation and naming the site the Bonita Peak Mining District Site. He even suggests the community set up an advisory group to remain engaged in the cleanup process.
The actual Superfund site boundaries, however, remain unclear.
“Because the boundaries of the site are being defined so as to permit study of possible sources, if data gathered during the project demonstrate that any property is not a significant contributor to contamination of the Animas River or its tributaries, the EPA may redefine the site boundaries as appropriate and will provide a confirming letter to the relevant property owners,” Murray wrote.
Silverton and San Juan County officials have until Feb. 29 to decide whether to accept federal intervention, a notion the town has rebuffed for the last 20-plus years as water quality has worsened in the Animas basin, resulting in the decline of trout in the river.In a prepared statement, Silverton and San Juan County spokesman Mark Eddy was noncommittal on what the town’s response to the EPA’s letter would be.
“We received the letter shortly before it was made public,” Eddy wrote. “We have made good progress in our discussions with the EPA regarding a Superfund listing. We are reviewing the letter to determine the full impact of the commitments the EPA has made.”
For Silverton and San Juan County to formally pursue a Superfund listing, officials would have to hold a special meeting and vote on a resolution, directing Hickenlooper to request the EPA’s hazardous cleanup program.
Meanwhile, state legislators are hoping to send a strong, unified message to the feds about the need for cleanups. Here’ a report from Peter Marcus writing for The Durango Herald. Here’s an excerpt:
State lawmakers on Thursday advanced a measure that would urge Congress to pass so-called “Good Samaritan” legislation.
The Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee backed Senate Joint Memorial 1 unanimously. It now heads to the full Senate for consideration.
The measure calls on Congress to pass legislation that would allow government and private entities to restore toxic inactive mines, without facing liability concerns.
While the memorial is largely symbolic – as the Legislature can’t force the hand of Congress – lawmakers hope to send a strong message.
“This was stimulated in part, but not solely, because of what happened on the Animas River this summer,” explained the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango…
“Most of those mine remediation projects have been based upon working with mine waste, even though the draining mines provide more metals to the river system than the mine waste piles do,” explained Peter Butler, co-coordinator of the Animas River Stakeholders Group and former chairman of the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission.
“A big part of that is because of liability issues in addressing those draining mines, so not very many of those draining mines have been addressed.”
Several legislative efforts are before Congress. State lawmakers and water stakeholders hope to encourage Congress to move faster on the Good Samaritan bills.
“Here, in Southwest Colorado, we all learned together in August 2015 that this type of threat can be directly caused by abandoned mines,” said Liane Jollon, executive director of the San Juan Basin Health Department.
Bruce Whitehead, executive director of the Southwestern Water Conservation District, said it is an issue that impacts watersheds statewide.
“Without that, and without litigation against responsible parties, there probably won’t be much more work done on these mines up here that are a problem, and will continue being a problem,” Whitehead said.