Positive side to Animas accident

There is good news — believe it or not — bad news and, most significant, revealing news seeping out along with the acidic heavy metals flooding into the Animas River basin this week.

The bad news, as most are by now aware, comes in the form of the sludgy orange cocktail of arsenic, lead, copper, cadmium and other heavy metals that poured into Cement Creek and the Animas on Thursday after an EPA crew accidentally triggered a blowout of the Gold King Mine near Silverton. An estimated 3 million gallons of mine wastewater flooded into the river and took the water well beyond the state water quality levels for several heavy metals, especially lead, which measured at an astounding 5,720 parts per billion (ppb) shortly after the spill. The acceptable threshold for the state’s domestic water quality standard is 50 ppb.

Comparably elevated levels of cadmium, arsenic, iron, copper and manganese were recorded at a location 15 miles north of Durango a day after the Gold King blowout, although the levels of acidity had been severely lowered and contamination is expected to be further diluted over time.

And so begins the upbeat element of the report out of southwest Colorado. Better still is that the initial impacts to fish swimming in the Animas near Durango do not yet appear to be severely detrimental. Only one of 108 caged fish placed in the river by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials died during the first 24 hours in the mustard-yellow water. Monitoring of macro-invertebrates in the river has been similarly positive, although that could clearly change as sediment settles on the riverbed.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife broadcast video Tuesday of fingerling rainbow trout introduced in the Animas River just before the big plume of contaminated water hit Thursday. Five days after the spill, the fish “appear to be in pretty good shape,” a CPW biologist said. The fish will now be submitted for analysis of heavy metal accumulation as on-site teams assess impacts of heavy metals on the river over the next several weeks if not months.

Although the long-term repercussions remain to be determined, the greater impact may prove to be that of perceptions.

Local fly-fishing shops already have reported being inundated with phone calls from people considering canceling their fishing trips to Durango, unaware of multiple other available fishing options in the region.

This is far from the first time heavy metals have spilled into the Animas River. Despite its Gold Medal trout fishing designation in the heart of Durango, the fishery has suffered for decades due to mine seepage, and annual stocking is necessary to sustain fish populations.

The Gold King disaster merely serves as the most recent and most dramatic blow. And perhaps, brought to light, the revealed reality of a mining industry that so often fails to take responsibility for enduring pollution problems near Silverton and across Colorado may ultimately come to something good.

The perception had been that everything was fine along the Animas, until it turned orange. Maybe this mustard-stained revelation can lead to some genuine action toward a long-term remedy for a long-standing issue. That’s the kind of news we all could use.