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Animas River Community Forum

Contact: Amanda Kuenzi, Coordinator

Email: AnimasRiverForum@gmail.com

Website: https://www.animasrivercommunity.org/

Background

The Animas River Community Forum came together in response to the Gold King Mine spill incident. The Forum’s role is sharing and disseminating information related to the spill, the 416 fire, and the subsequent recoveries. The forum works on issues that have agreement among Forum Partners. The group is looking to the future.

Our purpose is to:

  • promote communication, coordination and collaborative action;
  • foster public confidence;
  • support resiliency in our communities; and
  • enhance planning, improved public safety and health for the future;

All while honoring the institutional authorities and decision making of governmental and community organizations.

We do this by implementing the following objectives:

  1. Provide a bi-monthly forum for the communities of the Animas River to discuss issues, learn lessons, and build relationships necessary to recover from the Gold King Mine spill and 416 fire.
  2. Organize educational events and activities.
  3. Work together to develop and maintain a website and other tools to share information.
  4. Share lessons learned from the event and recovery with other parts of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West.
  5. Measure and document success

The Forum is open to the public. The Forum’s Community Partners include representatives from a broad mix of  community sectors, including:

Local, State, Tribal And Federal Government Agencies: Silverton, San Juan County Durango, La Plata County, Southern Ute Tribe, San Juan Basin Health Department, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, & Safety, USGS, Bureau of Reclamation (USBR),

Community Organizations: Animas River Stakeholders Group, Mountain Studies Institute, 5 Rivers Trout Unlimited, Region 9 EDD, Animas Watershed Partnership, San Juan Clean Water Coalition, CO Water Conservation Board, SW Water Conservancy District
Interested Citizens, Educators, and Elected Officials.
* This is not a comprehensive list of Forum Partners. 

Our Animas

Animas River Community Forum releases “Our Animas,” an educational publication exploring Animas River watershed health and safety.

Cover of "Our Animas" publication showing a scenic view of a river flowing through a valley with mountains in the background.

Our Animas was created by an ARCF committee that shared a common vision of creating an educational document that would address community concerns, use locally collected data, promote the understanding of river health, and share actions that community members can take to support river resiliency. The intent is to update this document every year.