Now that We Reconnected, What Next?

Continued monitoring of river ecosystem health is key to fully understanding the effects of the Gold King Mine accident

Continued monitoring of the Animas River will be needed as sediments deposited by the spill will both leach while in-situ and will be disturbed and re-deposited during higher flow events. Such activity will likely cause a short term decrease in water quality

Specific monitoring will be needed relative to the health of aquatic species.

According to a variety of indicators the EPA did not have sufficient protocols in place prior to beginning their exploratory work on the Gold King mining entrance including a emergency communication protocol. Hopefully the EPA will learn from their errors as they move forward with their mine remediation efforts.

Numerous tools and governmental agencies are available to move forward the mine remediation effort. The challenge ahead will be utilizing the voices of citizens in the Animas/San Juan watershed to insist the financial and organizational resources are specifically focused on the remediation effort soon. The work-on-the-ground will take decades, but we can no longer wait to address these concerns in a more deliberate and widerange effort than we have seen to this date.

CONNECT!

Help the Alliance Improve Mine Remediation Efforts

SJCA is creating a campaign to both educate the public regarding the toxic legacy of mining in the Animas/San Juan River watershed with the aim of building a strong public advocacy effort to press for the remediation of the polluting mines in the near-future. Fill out the form above to get updates and be a part of our efforts.