Residents demand health answers as mine spill fouls rivers

Farmers, towns and tribes slammed water-intake gates shut as a sludge-laden plume from a Colorado mine spill rolled down principal rivers in the desert Southwest on Monday, prompting local officials and families to demand answers about possible long-term threats from heavy metals borne along by the spill. No die-off of wildlife along the river has yet been detected. Federal officials say all but one of a test batch of fingerling trout deliberately exposed to the water survived over the weekend. As a precaution, state and federal officials along the river system have ordered public water systems to turn off intake valves as the plume passes. Boaters and fishing groups have been told to avoid affected stretches of the Animas and San Juan rivers, which are crowded with rafters and anglers in a normal summer. “There are more people who want to know, ‘OK, what’s going to happen now? Are you going to fix this?’ ” said Michele Truby-Tillen, a spokeswoman for the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management in New Mexico. ‘“How are we going to protect our families? How long am I not going to be able to shower at my house?” The state also has demanded that the federal government develop a plan for helping farmers who have been left without irrigation water. In Cedar Hill, N.M., a family farm that serves as many as 3,000 customers in the Four Corners region has been forced to stop irrigating dozens of acres of crops. D’rese Sutherland of Sutherland Farmers said she received advanced warning from farmer friends in Colorado last week about the approaching plume. “By the weekend, without any rain, we’ll be in trouble,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do but wait and see what happens.”...more