“It’s di∞cult to see”
Area businesses that rely on the Animas River are enduring impacts that will linger long after the tainted mustard hue fades from the water.
“Very difficult,” said Alex Mickel, who has turned hundreds of customers away from his Mild to Wild Rafting each day since the Environmental Protection Agency accidentally unleashed a 3 million gallon torrent of toxic mine water into the headwaters of the Animas last week.
“We are anticipating around $150,000 to $200,000 in lost revenue,” Mickel said. “But from an emotional standpoint, it’s difficult to see a beautiful river damaged in this way.”
The virulent plume that spilled from a dormant mine above Silverton on Aug. 5 has rolled on through Durango. The sickly orange glow is gone, and the Animas is returning to its normal color.
But the river is closed by order of the La Plata County sheriff at least until Monday. No rafting. No fishing. No splashing in the stream that winds through the tourism-dependent town.
Suddenly closing this essential element of Durango’s economy during the busiest time of year will have lasting repercussions. It’s not like a drought year or a particularly vicious wildfire season. Riverdependent businesses can see those coming months away and prepare.
“We are used to those bad years. But this is very different because we were having the best year ever. We are geared up and fully stocked and boom, the next day the river is closed,” said Andy Corra, a champion paddler whose 4 Corners River-sports canceled its renowned kayak clinics as rental business dried up and retail sales plummeted 70 percent.
“We will make it through. We will weather this,” Corra said. “Our biggest concern is that the river is healthy and that word gets out that we are back to normal.”
Corra and Mickel said they expect to file a claim for damages with the EPA, which caused the spill while working at the Gold King mine on Cement Creek above Silverton.
“We are hopeful they will step up,” Mickel said.
Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday said the river may reopen in phases. Local outfitters hope raftable sections will open first.
Silverton Mountain ski area, which is closed in the summer, dodged disaster when the surge of sludge barreled down Cement Creek, barely remaining in its banks. Had it escaped the channel, the ski area’s base would have flooded and its sole chairlift could have been taken out.
“But we lucked out,” ski area co-owner Aaron Brill said, noting that a new San Juan County-installed culvert served as a sort of dam, slowing the initial swell. “Mostly just orange muck all over the banks, which will turn into toxic, airborne dust for everyone to breathe well above the high-water line.”
Unlike recent droughts and wildfires, the closure of the Animas River affects only a portion of the region’s tourism industry. The area’s main attraction, the popular Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, has not seen any cancellations related to the sudden river shut-down.
“People don’t associate the river with the train ride to Silverton,” said Christian Robbins, marketing manager for the tourist train that winds along the most remote stretches of the Animas. “Really, this doesn’t come close to wildfires or … the threat of wildfires.”
The long-term environmental fallout from the spill remains unknown, but early signs are promising.
Biologists from the Mountain Studies Institute said macro invertebrates — the base of the food chain that supports aquatic life in the Animas River — survived initial exposure to the heavy metals that poured from the Gold King mine. Fingerling trout seemed healthy after five days in the stream, exposed to the contamination.
That’s good news for local anglers, who have thrived along the Animas despite decades of toxins trickling from upstream mines.
“The fish are really resilient,” said fly-fishing guide Charlie Noone, whose Animas River Anglers has seen several trips canceled in the wake of the spill. “They have lived in this ecosystem for years, and it’s a dying river.”
Local officials are repeating a common refrain heard during disasters: Durango is open for business. Swaying public perception during a deluge of not-glowing media attention is a battle.
“People see the yellow river, and nobody wants to come up here and fish,” said Noone, who also guides on the San Juan and Rio Grande rivers.
“It’s really hard to listen to someone who can’t even pronounce Animas tell you that your town is closed,” said Durango Mayor Dean Brookie, noting a national media report before a crowd that gathered Tuesday for Hickenlooper’s visit.
August is prime time for Durango. The city’s lodgers tax swells to its annual apex as tourists flock. The city’s harvest of tourist taxes, including the lodgers tax, was pacing ahead of last year’s record heading into July.
Local tourism boosters seemed confident the river closure would not be a huge disruption.
The Durango Area Tourism Office spent most of the week trumpeting the region’s many off-river recreation options, and most would-be rafters are finding other fun, spokeswoman Anne Klein said.
“Lodgers are reporting minimal impact,” she said. “Downtown appears to be bustling with tourists.”
Many tourists along Durango’s restaurant-lined Main Avenue on Tuesday said they knew the Animas was off limits because of the spill.
Still they came. Those who haven’t been tuned in, however, were disappointed to miss the river fun.
Jochan Bard, his wife and three kids, planned a threeday stop in Durango for rafting. The German family on a month-long tour of the Rocky Mountain West said they found plenty else to do during their stop in southwestern Colorado.
“We are really feeling for the people here, all of the farmers,” Bard said.