Concentrations of metals in the upper Animas River and its main tributaries, Cement and Mineral creeks, pose problems for invertebrates, fish and the animals that prey on them, an Environmental Protection Agency study finds. The study is a draft, and the conclusions are conservative, the report says.

The Animas River Stakeholders Group is turning to the brilliant minds of the world to find a solution to controlling toxic waste leaking from abandoned hard-rock mines around Silverton.

The effort to stanch the toxic drainage from abandoned hardrock mines here no longer faces a takeover by the federal government. “We’ve heard loud and clear that you want a collaborative approach,” Martin Hesmark, acting assistant regional director of U.S.

According to a Durango Herald article, the largest gold producer ever in Silverton, Sunnyside Gold Corporation, has offered $6.5 million toward cleaning up toxic waste leaking from one of its mines.

The largest gold producer ever in Silverton has offered $6.5 million toward cleaning up toxic waste leaking from one of its shuttered mines. A letter from the Sunnyside Gold Corp. was received Tuesday by the stakeholders group that has been working on cleanup since 1994.

A potential Superfund project in this old mountain mining town to reduce the amount of toxic metals flowing into the Animas River would focus on only the most glaring examples - four mines that are spewing 700 gallons a minute into an Animas tributary.

When Sunnyside Mining Company ended operations in Silverton in 1991, it negotiated a court decree to plug mine outlet tunnels, including the main access, the American Tunnel, with bulkheads. But the bulkheads raised the subterranean water level tremendously, increasing pressure that created drainage in nearby mines that had been mostly dry.

A meeting in Silverton this week concerning heavy-metal contamination of the Animas River increased public knowledge of the problem but produced no immediate solutions. “We wanted to bring people up to date on the quality of water in the Animas and why it’s getting worse,” Pete

If you want a good explanation of why it makes no sense to require every draining mine in Colorado to have a treatment plant at its base, check out the recently-posted video titled “Act of Congress: Good Samaritans and Draining Mines.” The video was created by Biscuit Boy Productions and Tom Schillaci, a member of the Animas River Stakeholders Group–in support of Senator Mark