Three million gallons of acidic mine drainage spilled into the Animas River basin in southern Colorado a decade ago, coloring the water yellow and drawing international attention. The incident occurred when federal contractors were attempting to address pollution at the Gold King Mine. The spill highlighted ongoing environmental challenges from historic mining operations in the San Juan mountains, where hundreds of abandoned mines continue to leak heavy metals.
In response, a Superfund site was established to manage cleanup efforts for 48 contaminated sites now grouped as the Bonita Peak Mining District near Silverton. These sites remain sources of heavy metal pollution in local waterways and soils.
Chara Ragland, chair of the site’s community advisory group, said, “We’re pleased that the EPA is at the point where in the next 18 months, we’re going to see some decisions made about how those sites are cleaned up.”
Research has indicated that while the August 5, 2015 Gold King spill drew significant concern, its long-term impact on river health was limited because high levels of heavy metals were already present due to runoff from other mines. Residents are hopeful that ongoing federal cleanup under Superfund will result in improved water quality for the Animas River basin.
“Doing things right takes time, but we’re committed to long-term results,” said EPA Regional Administrator Cyrus Western last week.
The pace of progress has been slow. Ty Churchwell, secretary of the community advisory group and mining coordinator for Trout Unlimited, noted that Superfund is currently the only legal framework available for cleaning up abandoned mines. “For me, there’s no use in complaining,” Churchwell said. “I’d rather do a thorough job than rush a job and screw it up.”
Shortly after the spill, EPA built a water treatment plant that continues to operate today. It treats between 300 and 500 gallons per minute before releasing water into Cement Creek—a tributary of the Animas River.
Following community discussions, EPA designated Bonita Peak as a Superfund site in September 2016 to address contamination from Gold King Mine and dozens of other historical mining locations across roughly 140 square miles in San Juan County. The area includes both mine tunnels and waste rock piles contributing ongoing pollution.
Despite being established nearly nine years ago, Bonita Peak remains at step one out of five required for delisting: collecting data on contamination extent and evaluating associated risks. EPA staff have spent years assessing environmental health conditions and studying complex underground mine networks.
In parallel with these studies, more than 20 smaller remediation projects have been completed within the Superfund site—such as covering lead-contaminated soils at campgrounds or removing waste rock from waterways.
A new waste repository facility is also under construction this year; it will store sludge generated by water treatment processes at Gold King Mine along with future wastes from broader cleanups within Bonita Peak.
“A lot of these areas have needed to be addressed for a long time, and I’m not sure they would have been had the Superfund process not begun,” Ragland said.
Attention is now turning toward developing plans for addressing three major sources of pollution within Bonita Peak—but finalizing those decisions could take another two years according to Churchwell: “That’s just the way Superfund works,” he said.
Recent years saw an uptick in progress due largely to funding from https://www.epa.gov/infrastructure/bipartisan-infrastructure-law-resources (“the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021”) and project management stability cited by Ragland. However, she noted setbacks this year stemming from changes within federal staffing under President Trump’s administration—including delays completing contracts necessary for finishing work on waste repositories due to personnel changes within EPA’s contracting office.
Ragland emphasized that while fear followed immediately after Gold King Mine’s accident, subsequent cleanup actions likely would not have occurred without its resulting Superfund status.
Churchwell pointed out signs of ecological recovery such as trout returning to Mineral Creek—a species absent there for decades until recently observed during a federal fish survey conducted in 2019 after local groups removed nearby waste rock piles several years earlier.
Both Ragland and Churchwell expressed their continued commitment alongside others on improving local water quality: “We’re very focused on the fact that we live here and we want this area to be somewhere we can live and recreate well into the future,” Ragland said.
