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Silverton Unanimously Votes To Ask For Superfund Cleanup Due To Mine Spill

By Rick Sallinger

SILVERTON, Colo. (CBS4) - The Silverton town board and San Juan County commissioners on Monday unanimously voted to seek a U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup in the mountains around the town.

It was last Aug. 5 that millions of gallons of acid waste poured from the Gold King Mine. Caused by an EPA accident, it shined a frightening light on the dangers of abandoned mines.

Bill Gardner is the town administrator for Silverton, he told CBS 4, "The Gold King was clearly the harbinger of time for change, time to deal with our acid mine waste."

Gold King Mine cleansing pools
Gold King Mine cleansing pool (credit: CBS)

A new water filtration plant has been built, but that's not the sole answer to problem. Resistance in and around Silverton to categorizing the mines alongside the nation's worst environmental problems has been melting away.

There has been a fear over time that the designation as a Superfund site would taint the area in a negative way, but now they have found a way to overcome that. It would not be labeled with the name Silverton. Instead it has been strategically named the Bonita Peak Mining District, which covers about 50 mines. The EPA says water quality monitoring is already approved.

Karen Hamilton, the acting director for the EPA Ecosystem Protection Program for the region said, "I'm very excited to say that we're developing a long-term monitoring plan, and that plan is in collaboration with our states and tribes."

animas river
Animas River (credit: La Plata County)

She added there will be 29 different sampling locations to examine multiple parameters in water and sediment, and they will provide resources to state and tribal partners for their own water quality assessment.

Around Silverton the evidence of the Gold King spill is now difficult to find.

PHOTO GALLERY: Gold King Mine Tour

William Tookey, the San Juan County administrator, was asked by CBS4's Rick Sallinger, "Has it been as bad as feared?" He replied, "I don't think it has, but our impact is different than what the downstream impact is."

On CBS4 News at 10 Sallinger visits the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico to show how the impact of the Gold King spill is still being felt.

CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.

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