The bizarre color of the Animas River, as seen in this Aug. 5 photo taken in Durango, drew media attention worldwide, but people who have lived in the area a long time say this is not the first, or even necessarily the worst, such spill of mining wastes into the water. Photo by Janneli F. Miller

For days in early August, the Animas River ran Tang orange during the Gold King Mine disaster, but it was not the first massive discharge from mines along its upper tributaries nor the deadliest to aquatic life.

Members of the Animas River Stakeholders Group (ARSG), which has been looking into solutions for such pollution for more than two decades, provided some perspective on the event during recent interviews.

ARSG co-coordinator Peter Butler, who has been involved with the group since its beginning, said he was taken aback by the media maelstrom over the Aug. 5 spill of 3 million gallons of toxic mining wastes into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River that has been devoid of aquatic life for decades.

“I was very surprised at the huge media response that we got,” Butler said. “I’ve seen the Animas this mustard-yellow color before.”

ARSG co-coordinator Bill Simon, who has also been with the group since the beginning, said spills have happened about five times since the group was formed in 1994 and he was not immediately concerned over this one.

“I wasn’t concerned because this has happened before and I knew the nature of spills,” he said. “They are a quick flash, pass quickly, and generally don’t have much serious impact on aquatic life. This one wasn’t as strong as some in the past.”

Some of the other similar events include a spill at Lake Emma in 1978, when the lake collapsed into mining shafts beneath it and then spilled out the mouth of the Sunnyside Mine, sending contaminated water down Cement Creek and into the Animas.

There was a similar spill in 1975 when a dike broke at a tailings pond at the Mayflower Mill, also in the watershed. The spills did kill all the fish in the affected reaches of the Animas almost immediately, according to reports.

The attention to the recent spill was sensationalized due to its nature, its brilliant orange color, and its timing during tourist season, some members agree.

“The EPA caused it, which got a lot more attention than previous spills,” Simon said. “In the past, the community was different. Back in the 1970s, the Durango community was comprised of different people and there was a lot more interest in mining. They may not have considered it so dangerous.”

The ARSG is designed to draw from many viewpoints and perspectives in order to work out the best solutions to the chronic problem of mining contamination in the Animas watershed.

“The collaborative process is advantageous because it’s more efficient,” said Butler. “Whenever there’s an issue, we try to get the different entities together to work for many different people. We can do a lot of science together and there’s no real argument over the data and information.”

ARSG works to reduce heavy metals leaching from hundreds of abandoned mines, and, according to their website, “using a watershed approach, have developed a remediation plan, recommended feasible water quality standards and implemented remediation projects through the Upper Animas River Basin.” The group, formed as an alternative to designating the contaminated mining area as a “Superfund” site, is a voluntary, non-appointed collective of more than 30 stakeholders representing diverse interests.

ARSG is funded by the San Juan Resource Conservation and Development Council, which provides non-profit status, financial oversight, and water-quality and mine-site characterization and remediation projects.

Among ARSG’s many stakeholders are the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; Colorado Parks and Wildlife; the cities of Durango and Silverton; Gold King Mines; the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad; the U.S. bureaus of Land Management and of Reclamation; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the U.S. Forest Service.

The involved participants offer their time and resources to further a cause they are personally vested in.

“These people are volunteering their time, are very capable and have put in a lot of work over the years,” Butler said. “It’s unusual to have that high level of capable people who are involved. Maybe it’s luck, or maybe it’s because this is an area that attracts a lot of those types who have a lot to contribute. I give a lot of credit to Bill Simon, who is a jack of all trades with a wealth of information you rarely find in anyone.”

Simon, who has also been with the group since the beginning, is the coordinator of ARSG and is grateful for the work of the EPA.

“The EPA has been one of our partners all along,” he said. “They’re very important and useful in the stakeholders group and an active participant on a daily basis, lending support.”

However, it’s widely recognized that the EPA was at fault in the spill.

Steve Fearn, a co-coordinator of the ARSG, said that the EPA should have sought more consultation and, at a minimum, made the group aware of the reopening of Gold King Level No. 7, where the spill occurred.

“We asked for information about what their procedure would be, because a number of members of [the ARSG] group have experience. It is risky and dangerous work and needs to be approached carefully,” he said. “We were concerned members of the EPA did not have the right type of experience.”

But the EPA did not respond and continued to work, Fearn said.

The result was much more water than anticipated and the ARSG is not pleased, Fearn continued.

The EPA – which was working with a contractor at the site – has assumed full responsibility for the spill and members of the ARSG said it is unfortunate that alternatives were not considered beforehand.

“The EPA admitted it was their fault and I have no doubt about that,” Simon said. “The contractor making a mistake, maybe. Whether they were negligent or not, I don’t have a good feeling about that, but alternatives could have and should have been made so it didn’t happen.”

One such alternative, according to Simon, would have been to drill from a different location instead of the portal itself to determine the pressure that had built up.

The EPA had been meeting with the ARSG to talk about cleanup in the area, including “Activities Regarding Red & Bonita [a nearby mine] and Gold King,” according to the minutes of the group’s May 27 meeting. Those minutes, posted on their website and in the sidebar on Page 5, show that it was known there was a water problem at the mine, but not its scope.

The ARSG had been discussing the situation for a long time. Minutes of its Feb. 20, 2014, meeting include a conversation with an EPA representative that concluded: “In addition, if possible, EPA would like to open up the Gold King #7 level to see what is going on inside with regards to water inflow to the workings before installing the bulkhead in the R & B [Red and Bonita mine]. Overall, the group supported both ideas.”

Following the blow-out in August, the EPA built a series of settling ponds below the mine to treat the contaminated water as it continues to pour out at a rate of about 600 gallons per minute.

In 2011, the Silverton Standard reported that the Sunnyside Gold Corp. had offered $6.5 million to improve water quality in the mining area because up to 845 gallons per minute was then draining into Cement Creek from abandoned mines.

Looking towards the future, one of the possible options is building a permanent water-treatment facility for cleanup and reduction of wastes.

Fearn, who said he does not personally feel Superfund status is the best or quickest solution to the problem, supports this alternative.

“The Town of Silverton and San Juan County should build a water-treatment plant and do further remediation,” he said.

Whether or not the spill could have been avoided if a water-treatment facility had been in place is hard to determine and some argue that the release was just a matter of time.

“If there had been a treatment plant near the Gold King Mine and water had been put in a pipe and taken to the treatment plant, there still would have been a blowout,” Butler said. “We just wouldn’t have known when.”

The water-treatment facility is expected for the future for further cleanup and remediation. “I’m certain we will need to have a permanent water facility,” Simon said. “What form that will take remains to be seen.”

One possible form is from funding provided by Sunnyside, headquartered in Silverton, which has now offered about $10 million for further cleanup efforts.

However, there is a caveat.

The money will only be available if there is a guarantee of no federal Superfund designation. If one is enacted, Sunnyside would then use those dollars to fight the EPA with litigation, Butler said.

Back in 2011, according to the Silverton Standard, the corporation wrote the ARSG and the BLM that it “does not view that a Superfund listing would be constructive and would vigorously contest any alleged liability under Superfund.”

No other topic related to the spill may prompt as much contention as the Superfund, an environmental program established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. It requires a substantial amount of money and one of the stigmas that has restricted its acceptance is that it could adversely affect property values, discourage tourism, and disallow mining’s return.

The threat of Superfund designation has been a leading motivator since the group’s start-up over 20 years ago and they have fought to keep the watershed off the list, which was proposed in the early 1990s by the EPA.

“We were concerned about Superfund in 1994 because they wanted to make the entire watershed a Superfund site and we felt strongly that it was based upon the fact that they had not accounted for natural background loading,” Simon said.

A recent meeting held in Silverton focused on whether to seek a Superfund listing.

“Downstream users were very curious about why Silverton had not moved forward with the Superfund, and we really need to address why it would and would not work,” Simon said.

Reasons why the Superfund could be successful, according to Simon, include putting the work and cleanup efforts into the federal government’s hands, while reducing the burden on the local population and providing more available resources.

However, one problem is that Congress has significantly reduced funding for the CERCLA sites.

“The Superfund is no longer ‘superfunded’ and is only a fraction of what it used to be,” Simon said. “There was once about $350 billion in funding – now there’s no remaining balance.”

This is concerning for many reasons, including that once a mine is placed in Superfund status, no other entity can work on it besides the federal government, Simon said.

It is also not clear that a Superfund designation prior to the spill would have made a difference.

A Superfund designation was granted to the Nelson Tunnel and Commodore Waste Rock site in Creede. However, no real groundwork has yet to be seen.

“The Creede designation has been in place for eight years and it’s at a standstill,” Simon said. “They were supposed to install a treatment plant, but that hasn’t happened and they have not gotten what they expected.”

Butler countered this statement by saying that a lot of valuable research has been done, although nothing has happened on the ground. “They have yet to address the bigger issue,” he said.

Although the stakeholders are welcome to have different views on moving forward, 100 percent consensus is needed to reach a decision on a stance representing the group.

Currently, there are many perspectives, according to Simon, which range from being strongly for Superfund designation, adamantly opposed, or uncertain and looking for more information.

“It isn’t a matter of us wanting to go one way or the other,” he said. “It’s about remediation in the most effective way, and that’s our main goal. The Superfund is a possible option.”

There are both pros and cons to all the publicity and the community’s concerned reaction.

“The focus brings attention to the issues, possibly leading to more resources for cleanup,” Simon said. “But negative publicity for Durango has created a bit of a media crisis.”

At this time, it is hard to discern if there will be long-term effects to the river, Butler said.

“We don’t know whether sediments will have long-term effects,” he said. “I think they won’t be very major and we would notice them within months or a few years if there were to be any.”

The ARSG is designed to raise awareness, provide information, and answer questions, not pressure the community into one form of thinking.

“It’s a good uphill battle to get the information to the public about spills in general and what can and cannot be done,” Simon said. “It’s a complex situation and a long story. We learn more everyday, although we’ve known about it for 20 years.”

Since their beginning, they have received recognition and have witnessed positive change resulting from projects they have worked on throughout the Upper Animas River, including Mineral Creek.

The Mineral Creek project, which took about 20 years and is set to be completed early this month, has seen a reduction in loading of zinc and copper by about 70 percent, Simon said.

Trimble Lake has also been improved and now meets Class I aquatic water quality standards, Simon added.

The Animas River Stakeholders Group holds open meetings; the next will be held in Durango on Sept. 22.

For more information on the ARSG, see www.animasriverstakeholdersgroup.org.

From the ARSG’s minutes of May 27, 2015:

“Steve Way with EPA and Allen Sorenson with DRMS [the state Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety] gave a presentation on installing the Red & Bonita bulkhead this summer. Much of the discussion focused on the location of the fracture zone we call the Bonita fault which may be the source of most of the water. The expectation is that the water level will rise in the fracture zone and possibly express in a new location. The question is where might it surface, how much will surface, and what will be the quality. One possibility is that water will surface where the North Fork of Cement Creek crossed the fault zone, below the Gold King #7 level. EPA plans on an intensive sampling program at many sites within the vicinity of the Red & Bonita once the bulkhead valve is closed. Work will begin in a few weeks. Closure is expected in early fall. The process will be reversible if need be because the valve can be re-opened.

“The first step for installing the bulkhead is to muck out the sludge in the tunnel back to the bulkhead site. The sludge will be caught and treated in a system directly below the mine. (As a side note, Allen mentioned that last year when the mine was explored, they found evidence of check dams and diversions indicating that at some point, the miners were dealing with water in the mine workings.) Once this step has been completed, the contractor will start to open up the Gold King #7 level. There is a pool of water several feet deep behind the collapsed portal. The treatment system at the Red & Bonita will be used to handle the water and muck from the Gold King as work begins there. EPA is willing to remove the initial blockage into the Gold King, but if there is another collapse farther in, they may not want to expend the resources to open it up.”

Library creates guide for spill

Reed Library at Fort Lewis College has created a library guide for the Animas River spill. The guide will serve as a repository for information and resources related to the spill, including media coverage and government releases. The guide is open to everyone and can be viewed at http://subjectguides. fortlewis.edu/c.php?g=364191. The guide will be updated on a regular basis as more information becomes available. Reed Library’s main website can be accessed at https://library.fortlewis.edu.

For the Navajo Nation, environmental contamination is nothing new. The toxic legacy of uranium-mining lingers to this day in the form of tainted soils and waters.

The San Juan River near Bluff, Utah, on an afternoon in early August following the Gold King Mine spill. Residents of the northern portion of the Navajo Nation depend on the river for watering crops and livestock; many remain skeptical that it is all right to use, despite reassurances from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Photo by Gail Binkly.

So the nation’s response to the Aug. 5 Gold King Mine spill, which discharged more than 3 million gallons of contaminated wastes into Cement Creek and the Animas River in Colorado, has been skepticism about federal-government claims regarding water quality.

As the Diné learned about the toxic plume traveling along the Animas and into the San Juan River, they voiced worries about how long the water would be tainted, how it would affect their livestock, and whether anyone would want to buy crops irrigated from the river.

Ten days after the spill, the oil-rich Navajo community in Aneth, Utah, called a second meeting at their chapter house. The purpose was to get another U.S. Environmental Protection Agency update on the condition of the San Juan River, which is fed by the Animas and flows through the Navajo Nation 100 yards from the meeting hall.

The small, rural community augments its industrial economy with agriculture. Although farming is less commercially oriented than in neighboring chapters 60 miles to the southwest in Shiprock and Gadii’ahi/To’Koi, the people are dependent on the river for their livestock feed and small family gardens.

“Sheep and cattle are a food source,” said Brenda Brown, Aneth Chapter secretary- treasurer. “The families here are not wealthy enough to own a pumping unit to fill ponds for their livestock, or even able to drill wells. They come to the river to fill the water tanks from the pumping spigot.”

A warning

As business people and residents gathered outside the building before the meeting, news spread that the San Juan County Utah Health Department had decided earlier that morning that the river was safe to use, yet there were no assurances that the U.S. EPA or the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency were in concurrence.

Jeff Rhoedell, Four Corners Business Unit manager with Resolute Oil, told the Free Press, “There are a lot of samples coming out [of the river] and a lot of conflicting information, but who is the ultimate authority? The Navajo Nation President’s office has advised us to wait.”

President Russell Begaye had declared a Navajo Nation state of emergency six days earlier. The public announcement and a precautionary statement posted that day, Aug. 8, on the Aneth Chapter Facebook page carried an ominous message: “As a precautionary measure, [we urge you to] prevent livestock from drinking from the river. Avoid diverting water from the San Juan River. Do not enter the River.”

It followed a posting from the San Juan County Health Department affirming that, “due to the water contamination in the San Juan River … NTUA [Navajo Tribal Utility Authority] has turned off the water pumps to Aneth and Montezuma Creek. The contamination is expected to be in our area Monday, August 10, 2015.”

As the group awaited the U.S. EPA representatives, Resolute community relations specialist Robert Whitehorse told the Free Press that the Navajo Nation as a whole needs time to investigate the situation.

“This is open range. Our horses run free. Our animals eat and drink along the riverbanks, our sheep and cattle. We don’t know who to trust. We have to find out for ourselves. Along the way the animals may die. Even though the water is clean, there will be some contamination settled on the banks and in the bottom.”

Yellow current

The river runs through the Utah Navajo Strip, the northern edge of the Navajo Nation. Unease reigns in all the hamlets built around its course – Aneth, Montezuma Creek, Bluff, Mexican Hat, Halchita, Monument Valley, Oljeto and Page.

The strip is a swath of plentiful natural resources, commonly referred to as part of the “Uranium Belt,” where uranium, coal and rare-metals extraction, transport and milling have resulted in decades of contamination and consequent sickness.

Within 24 hours of learning about the toxic breach at the Colorado mine, the Navajo Department of Emergency Management responded by naming their strategic operation “Tó’ Łitso, Operation Yellow Water,” a name close to that of another massive contamination event spanning decades and still in remediation, “Łitso,” the Navajo word for uranium, meaning “yellow dirt.”

Aneth Chapter Vice President Bill Todachennie opened the Aug. 14 meeting with remarks that reflected the deep rupture of trust in the U.S. EPA, as well as the weak authority of the Navajo Nation EPA. No entity was spared the criticism and pressure, including NTUA, the office of the Navajo President, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Office of Emergency Management.

It was hoped that results of water-quality testing would be available at the meeting, but none had been returned yet. Complicating efforts to contact Navajo agency officials for information was the fact that Aug. 14 was also Navajo Codetalker Day, a holiday for Navajo employees. Official offices remained shut.

“We have no idea who called this meeting,” began Todachennie, “no clue who is presiding. All we have are concerns over the water.

“This morning the water in my shower turned brown on me. Is it safe or not? Sad news comes out of Window Rock and we’re not included. Apparently there’s a big hole around Aneth / Montezuma Creek.

“Yesterday the 11 a.m. radio news was all about someone from Window Rock and talk about the largest Navajo community, Shiprock. Even our own tribal government is playing a game with us. We’re getting upset.”

Although representatives from some key agencies did finally arrive, it was late in the morning when discussions began in earnest.

Pipes and pumps

Dave Luna of the NTUA Red Mesa Sub Office reviewed the facts, background and precautionary measures.

NTUA operates two 300-foot wells here, he told the audience. They’re located away from the river in Montezuma Creek. Both were shut down as soon as NTUA learned of the contamination.

“But now there is a big misunderstanding. People think we take water from the river. We do not. We take water from under the river, through a pipe [to the storage tanks],” he explained, “and our two [other] wells north of Aneth are a separate system. That system is not impacted by the river because they are 8 miles north of the river and 400 feet higher in elevation. There isn’t a chance of contamination in that water.”

After the two Montezuma Creek water tanks were off-line, the company began hauling water to refill them, Luna said.

Even that proved a formidable task. One tank was inaccessible because the water-tanker truck was too big. “We had to use a booster pump to fill the second tank. It stirred up the sediments in the line, discolored the water. We had to flush the lines of sediments,” which is the reason brown water came out of Todachennie’s shower.

Each tank holds a three-and-a-halfday supply. NTUA started hauling water on Wednesday, two days prior to the meeting.

“We will continue to top off the tanks in Montezuma Creek by hauling water as long as it’s needed,” Luna said. “But we need water conservation here, too, commercial customers as well as everyone else – convenience stores, businesses, schools, families. The tanks are presently 75 percent full. By end of the day they will be filled again for the weekend.”

The water is coming from the Ratherford pipe, an NHA neighborhood about three miles south of Montezuma Creek on the other side of the river.

NTUA does its own testing, too, said Luna. “Labs in Fort Defiance are testing the water. First, we took the baseline and then we sample every three days. Tests are also sent to a lab in Wisconsin. It takes five to 10 days for results.”

Questions for Luna focused on the potential contamination of the river banks as heavy metals settle out of the water.

“It may not be safe for 60-100 years,” a man in the audience declared. “Every time the wind blows it will blow the contamination, or a fast current could stir it up again. The horses may get it on their hoofs.”

Luna replied that data is needed, and told a young mother worried about the safety of the water at the Aneth boarding school (located within half a mile of the river) that all NTUA operations must comply with the federal Clean Water Act. Routine sampling is always reported, he told her.

An apology

EPA Region 9 Superfund Division representative David Yogi, thanked the community for the opportunity to give the update. “Let me start with our apology,” he continued. “How much we regret what happened up in Colorado and how I wish we could meet all of you under different circumstances.”

The team from EPA brought a laminated map showing the sampling points in the river. It included five sites on the New Mexico side of the reservation. Those in Utah were located near State Line (New Mexico / Utah / Colorado), Aneth, Montezuma Creek, Sand Island near Bluff, Mexican Hat and Oljeto.

Information about the sampling was not yet available, Yogi explained. “We don’t have the test results, yet the EPA recognizes the impact in everyone’s life and on the livestock. Today we have a system in place to provide water. EPA is working with the Navajo Department of Emergency Services so we can help provide that.” He asked for a list of community needs.

The need for livestock water was the primary concern that day, as well as an explanation about a federal claims form, Reimbursement Form 95, which President Begaye had advised the Diné not to sign, fearing that in doing so the people would be relinquishing their right to reimbursement for future damages. The EPA has said that is not true.

Navajo Nation attorney general Ethel Branch will be looking into how to modify the form to accommodate the deeper impact that may come from the toxic spill in the future, he said in a press release.

Another community member raised concerns about the immediate welfare of the elders. “They don’t speak English. They don’t understand,” he said. “Many of them cannot come to the chapter to find answers, and they may not have a cell phone to call, or internet. We should be calling on them in person and the EPA should contract with interpreters to help, even on the radio stations KRTZ and KTNN. That’s what they enjoy listening to and that’s where the EPA should be to help them understand.”

Another audience member gave a detailed account of how most people “store livestock water in small barrels now that access to the river is closed.

“That’s good for one day, but then they have to do it all over again the next day. Why not give them a big tank, a thousand gallons, right now? Many have no tanks to store the water they’re hauling.”

But good water did come to the Aneth Chapter. According to secretary/treasurer Brown, the local Church of Christ in Montezuma Creek delivered 18 pallets of bottled drinking water to the community during the first days of the emergency and San Juan County, Utah, did the same. NTUA continued service to their individual metered customers, delivering potable water to homes.

During the week following the meeting, Brown told the Free Press the BIA had installed two tanks, one in Aneth and one in Montezuma Creek, both of them filled with water hauled from Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, the giant tribal farming enterprise south of Farmington.

Resolute Oil Company installed another livestock water storage location with a temporary, rented 24,000-gallon tank in Montezuma Creek and began hauling municipal water to it from Blanding, Utah.

Rivers open

Concerns at the Aneth Chapter update meeting mirrored those heard at other chapters. The scrutiny was intense at each meeting, as if the implications of the toxic Gold King plume deepened as it ran the course to Lake Powell. The concerns in the Silverton- Durango area did not reflect the issues raised inside the Navajo Nation.

Durango reopened the Animas River to recreation on Aug. 14. San Juan County, N.M., reopened the Animas and San Juan rivers to irrigation, recreation and pumping into municipal water-treatment plants the next day.

But President Begaye issued no such relief to the 13 impacted chapters. Instead, Navajo residents were advised not to use the river water for livestock or agricultural irrigation. He would wait until the Navajo EPA had obtained results from the soil sampling of the river banks and bottom. Begaye reiterated that he would lift the advisory only after the NNEPA analysis of the data assured that the water is safe.

In the same public statement, Vice President Jonathon Nez explained, “We will wait for the City of Farmington to flush out their system before we open our irrigation systems so that we don’t get any of those contaminants…We don’t want to contaminate the entire Navajo irrigation system.”

The following day the EPA issued a statement saying it was working with the nation to distribute 16,000 gallons of non-potable water to 13 locations for agriculture and livestock use. Hay and alfalfa for livestock feed were also being distributed.

Black particles

But that aid would soon evaporate.

By Aug. 18, the 13 tanks contracted through Triple S Trucking in Farmington had been installed at locations around the larger Shiprock farming community, including Upper Fruitand and Gadii’ahi/ Tokoi, where they became the center of another alleged layer of contamination on the Navajo Nation.

Shiprock Farm Board member Joe Ben, Jr., refused the water in the tanks after he inspected it, alleging the water was malodorous and filmy and that it and/or the tanks were contaminated.

The next day, President Begaye and Attorney General Branch visited two of the tanks in question and filmed a video at one, holding up to the camera a cup of dingy water they said came from the tank. Branch pointed out small black particles floating in it. Begaye pressed them between his fingers, showing how they made an oily smear on his skin. They also both wiped their hands on the tank near the spigot, showing a resulting dark filmy substance allegedly picked up from the tank.

They released the video on Facebook. It went viral. Public outrage followed.

The Farmington Daily Times reported that during a phone interview, Triple S Executive Vice President Jason Sandel explained that the tanks they delivered are being used to hold non-potable water. Sandel said since the mine spill, the company hauled tanks to areas from the Colorado-New Mexico state line to the Navajo Nation, including deliveries to Aztec and Kirtland.

“We’ve been delivering tanks all over the county without complaint,” he said.

In an statement posted later that day, the U.S. EPA explained that they worked to provide alternative agricultural and livestock water for the farmers and ranchers. The water in the tanks came from the Bloomfield utility company and met all applicable federal and state water-quality standards. Additionally, the statement said, the EPA would comply with the tribe’s request to use a water source permitted in the Navajo Nation.

The bigger picture

President Begaye confiscated two of the 13 tanks, promising to investigate the alleged contamination and reiterating that the river is off-limits to the Navajo people.

Nearly a month of restricted access to the river has brought the Navajo ranchers and farmers face to face with the reality of lost crops and the continuing hardship of securing enough water to meet the daily needs of livestock, including horses. On Aug. 20, the president held a public meeting at Phil Hall in Shiprock, where he invited impacted chapter officials, farm-board and grazing-committee members to express their concerns. Most were looking at the long-term prospect of possibly contaminating their fields with sediment deposited on the river banks. Five of the seven San Juan River Chapter officials at the meeting

spoke against opening the river for irrigation. It was enough support for Begaye to request community members to put a resolution before their respective chapters to vote on whether they want to open the river for irrigation.

Shut the ditch

On Aug. 21, Shiprock Chapter members voted 104-0, with 9 abstentions, on a resolution to keep the irrigation ditches closed for one year. Shiprockarea farmers utilize the Hogback pump, which affects Tse Dah K’aan, Shiprock and Gadii’ahi / To’Koi chapters.

Meanwhile, the N.N. EPA reported that initial data from their water samples concurs with data from neighboring jurisdictions, indicating that water from the San Juan River is safe for irrigation purposes.

The U.S. EPA has given initial reports on the soil, but the Navajo Nation will rely on its own EPA for final test results, said the president’s press release. “I’m glad the water samples indicate the water is safe for irrigation use,” said Begaye, “but I remain concerned over the soil and sediment that lines our river bank.

The N.N. EPA was expected to have final soil-sample results at press time.

“The health of our Navajo people will always come first. As such, we must be diligent and cautious in making this decision,” said Vice President Nez.

Linda Reeves, Superfund Division, EPA Region 9 discusses San Juan River water sampling locations with Leonard Lee, past president of the Aneth Chapter, and Jeff Roedell and Roger Atcitty from Resolute Oil Company. Photo by Sonja Horoshko.

Back to basics

The U.S. EPA has deployed more than 210 employees and contractors in response to the spill. Linda Reeves, Superfund Division representative, EPA Region 9, told the Free Press that the EPA uranium clean-up is not impacted by the spill. “There are 523 abandoned uranium mine claims on or near the Navajo Nation. We’re currently working on 83 of them. Of the total, 46 are highest priority, and we’re working on 31 of those. There may be minor scheduling conflicts over the next few weeks due to increased staff deployment, but that is a temporary situation.”

On a more local level, Aneth Chapter is gaining support for people’s needs from local businesses and churches as well as the federal government.

In a telephone interview, Resolute manager Roedell explained that they opened a tank to the community on Thursday, Aug. 20.

“It was really that afternoon that people found out it was available and started using it. As of Sunday evening [Aug. 23] we dispensed 12,000 gallons of water to the community. Use continues to increase, but I haven’t received a recent tally. It appears 10 to 15 community members take advantage of the service each day. The water is sourced from the Blanding municipal water supply and hauled in tankers that only haul clean water, so we haven’t had any issues with dirty water.”

But how long can Resolute provide the water? According to Roedell, the company will fill the tank until the river is re-opened, yet he added the caveat that “if it goes another six months or more we’d have to evaluate the costs and financial feasibility.”

Aneth Vice President Todachennie told the Free Press in a telephone update that the BIA installed a temporary 24,000-gallon tank at the chapter house. “Two 6,000-gallon trucks deliver the water twice a day. About 20 families show up every day. People are loading 100-gallon water tanks, yet, some come back everyday.”

His concern is also the long term, and the broader economic impact. More people are aware of the condition of the river, he explained. “They should be thinking not only about the mineral deposits settling on the banks of the river, but everyone’s use of commercial fertilizers and agricultural chemicals today, in Colorado, New Mexico, here. We should be advocating on behalf of more than just the Navajo people, now.”

Not many chapters have weighed in with resolutions to keep river access shut. Nenahnezad, San Juan and Upper Fruitland, all just a few miles east of Shiprock Chapter, requested, instead, that the president open irrigation to their farms. During a special meeting held with them Aug. 27, Begaye agreed to open the Fruitland Irrigation Canal after it is flushed. Farmers in those three chapters may irrigate as early as Sunday, Aug 30.

Todachennie is unclear about drafting a chapter resolution banning use of the river for a year, as the Shiprock chapter did. Alluding once again to the disregard central Navajo government allegedly shows for the community, Todachennie seems confident when he says they will find their way through the crisis.

“Although we will respect the president’s ban on using the river water, we are basically on our own out here.”