Animas River Research Paper

Have you ever seen a yellow river? Golden river, not so golden after all. In Colorado there was a mine spill in the Animas River that affect many people, animals and their land. The Animas River was polluted with with toxic chemicals that have left an environmental disaster and people can get diseases, from the water, leaving people to wonder if their way of life will ever be the same. The Animas river flowed a yellow color through several states contaminating hundreds of miles of land and the biggest indian reservation in the nation.

The Animas River is a main tributary that comes from the San Juan Mountains in Southern Colorado. The river begins in Silverton, Colorado the mining area where the Gold King Mine produced tons of gold and the chemical waste that would contaminate the river and flows through Colorado and New Mexico where it joins the San Juan River. It travels hundreds of miles through the

Those chemicals produced acid that eat up the dirt barrier and eventually burst and contaminated the River. Heavy metals like cadmium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, lead, arsenic, beryllium, mercury, and aluminum were sent flowing through the Animas River contaminating the land as the yellow water flowed downstream. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been monitoring the site and had contracted the cleanup to some private firm. The river has been know to have this chemicals in the water but it was always within federal standards. The EPA issued a press release and water restrictions were in place along the Animas River banks. Farmers were not allowed to water their crops, ranchers were not allow to allow their animals in the water, no fishing or recreation activities were allowed in the River. Local residents were concerned, businesses who rely on the river were shut down because of the uncertainty of those