The Animas river is ailing

The Animas River flows into Durango like the vena cava into the heart, carrying our lifeblood, sustaining our way of life. But the river is sick, and it is getting sicker every day. A giving waterway, the Animas has silently borne demands placed on it ever since the first settlers populated its banks. Native inhabitants of the region, by contrast, used it little. First came hard-rock miners exploiting the immense riches of the San Juan Mountains in the 1860s. Later, mining produced radioactive tailings from uranium milling. The wounds left by mining still bleed contaminants into the Animas. In fact, toxic discharges have worsened in recent years, raising the specter of a major federal cleanup effort. Less alarming, but still of growing concern, are wastes – herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, pet excrement – that ooze from the region’s growing population like sweat from pores. Then there is our thirst and the water siphoned to slake it...more

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More than a century of measurements

Demands on the Animas River