n anemic snowpack in the southern San Juan Mountains this past winter is going to leave Southwest Colorado and the Upper Rio Grande basin to the east with stream flows well below average, the Natural Resources Conservation Service reports. The outlook contrasts markedly with what the northern tier of the state can expect, the agency said in its June report.

In simpler and perhaps less environmentally sensitive times of the mid-1970s, a whitewater enthusiast drove a bulldozer into the Animas River to push a boulder downstream and remove an obstruction for sports like kayaking and rafting, says longtime paddler John Brennan.

A pair of Fort Lewis College students have turned a 35-day exploration of the Animas River, from its headwaters north of Silverton to Lake Powell, into a 90-minute documentary. Stephen Witherspoon and Greg Cairns are the producers and directors of “The Current,” which will have its premiere Wednesday at The Back Space Theatre.

The U.S. Forest Service has filed an application to perfect a portion of the Animas Service Area water right owned by La Plata County and the Southwestern Water Conservation District. The Forest Service filed the application in District Court, Water Division 7, on Nov.

There are about 7,300 abandoned hard-rock mines in Colorado and a large percentage of them now drain toxic substances.

According to the Colorado Division of Water Resources, Animas River flows in November were the lowest in 102 years of record keeping at just 9,209 acre-feet (af). Rege Leach, Division engineer in Durango, indicated the second-lowest flows occurred in 1934 with 9,374 af.

Another bureaucratic hurdle in the cleanup of the Animas River was broken down Wednesday, with a new interpretation of environmental policy from the Environmental Protection Agency. In a call with news media, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., announced that the EPA would loosen restrictions on “good Samaritans” looking to clean up abandoned hard-rock mines throughout the West.

It’s no wonder the Animas River looks like a trickle. The total flow in the Animas through Durango during November was 9,209 acre-feet, the lowest in 102 years of records, Rege Leach, the state Division of Water Resources engineer in Durango, said Thursday. The second-lowest flow in the Animas was in 1934, when 9,374 acre-feet flowed through Durango, Leach said.

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.

Southwestern Colorado’s rivers are unique in that many of the rivers and tributaries flow from north to south and are administered as independent river systems. This is due to the fact that many, such as the Navajo, Blanco, Piedra, Pine, Florida, Animas, La Plata, and Mancos Rivers, are tributary to the San Juan River in New Mexico or just upstream of the state line.