The State of Colorado's Watersheds Report 2005

• Year: 2005
• Title: The State of Colorado's Watersheds Report
• Author: Colorado Watershed Assembly
• Description: 2005
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

local watershed reports
Ten Years of Collaboration
The Animas River Stakeholders
Group celebrated ten years of
collaboration and river stewardship in
September of 2004. Several participants
have retired from agency positions
over this period, but in a wonderful
show of support, nearly all past and
present folks attended the celebration.
Our group remains fully engaged
with strong support of all founding
entities and several new ones. Now
we devote most of our time toward the
development of remediation projects
and monitoring the results. Following
years of characterization work,
assessing impacts of hundreds of mine
sites in the basin, our recommendations
for new stream use classifications,
numeric standards, and 29 TMDL's
have been adopted. We determined
that 67 mine sites account for over
90% of all metal contributions to the
Animas Watershed from anthropogenic
sources. Remediation of those sites is
our highest priority.
Remediation Activities
This year we have four remediation
construction projects underway. Three
are being sponsored by the BLM and
involve consolidation and treatment
of mines wastes. The other project
will implement infiltration controls
by covering two large open stopes of
the Pride of the West mine into which
two streams are flowing. Currently the
water courses through approximately
700 vertical feet of mine workings
before discharging its metal load into
Cunningham gulch. Over 180,000
e
pounds of steel will be flown in
and placed by helicopter in order to
permanently close the stopes and
divert the streams into their natural
channels. At 12,000 foot elevation, in
steep and remote terrain, this project is
quite expensive but it will permanently
reduce metal loading from the mine
and close up a major safety hazard.
In addition to these projects, the
ARSG is putting the Kansas City mine
remediation out for bid. This project
is partially funded by a grant from the
Colorado Watershed Assembly.
Crafting New Legislation
On another front, our stakeholders
group has crafted its own "pilot" Good
Samaritan legislation as an amendment
to the Clean WaterAct in order to reduce
liability for third parties engaged in
remediation of draining mines. The bill
was introduced into Congress in 2004
and hopefully will be re- introduced in
2005. If passed, our legislation would
not preclude other pilot projects, nor a
national Good Samaritan provision. The
Animas Watershed has an abundance of
abandoned hardrock mines, extensive
remediation experience, and an
established basin -wide monitoring
program necessary to accomplish and
our group remains fully
engaged with strong
support of all founding
entities and several
new Ones.
evaluate the effectiveness of a pilot
project. It could be a useful means to
gather support for a broader legislative
approach.
Future Focus
In anticipation of the 2005 — 2006
WQCC's review and rule making
hearing on the Animas River, the
stakeholders group is completing a
basin -wide post - remediation analysis
of geochemical and biological
components of the streams. This will
be compared to our earlier Animas Use
Attainability Analysis which analyzed
conditions before most remediation
efforts began.
Several remediation projects
are being developed for the 2006
season. Maintenance of sites already
remediated will be our next most
important concern since several sites
have been subjected to extensive
damage from off -road recreational
vehicles and other sources.
Assessing a mine site in the
Animas Basin