A Watershed's Connection

My wife and I just 2 weeks ago completed a 7 day, 2,000 mile road trip, crossing 6 states, fishing 3 rivers in CO, almost all the trip on the Colorado Plateau. As we passed through Four Corners in AZ and then the muddy San Juan in NM, I reminded myself just how big an area of a watershed the Colorado River encompasses.

The Animus River mining accident happened the same day we crossed into Colorado. This news was everywhere, as you may suspect, in this region, where residents live very close to their environment and whose economies heavily depend on out-of-area visitors. While we wern't planning on fishing the Animus, the news hit me like a sucker-punch to the gut.

Through my years with TU, I had long heard about their programs with Public Lands protection, the Abandoned Mine program and our government lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. And, about one of the most convuluted laws on the books; the 1872 Mining Act, which lets mine owners file potentially harmful mining claims on public land with little public oversight and pay no royalties to the government. 

As we toured Telluride and other towns, I was amazed at the number of stilling basins along the sides of rivers, which hold the toxic waste water from on-going mining as well as post-excavation reclamation operations. I'm told that these basins slowly release the waste water as to dilute its effects. Sounds crazy to me, but, I guess it is the best remediation practice.

What can be done about these situations? As a TU member and angler, you can read the occasional Action Alerts that are distributed out on emails and social media and support the above named programs' recommendations.Every day, counter-efforts are made in Congress to gut the EPA, abolish the Clean Water Act, and dilute environmental protections on our watersheds. You can "speak with your computer" and/or your phone to read a prepared script in a call to your elected officials to please back off these misguided proposals.

Here is a call to action on the Animus situation. Please check out this link; http://www.sanjuancleanwater.org/

Our South Coast chapter has a simple slogan message: we all live downstream.  In southern California, I very well may be drinking the water that comes from the Animus. That is a fact as well as a mantra.

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