The last remnant of Telluride’s messy mining legacy is causing headaches. Last fall, the U.S. Forest Service called the Environmental Protection Agency to consult on moving 34 acres of mining tailings located on public land on the town’s beloved Valley Floor. Soil tested near a popular hiking trail along the San Miguel River detected lead […]
Animas River
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News, Water
As drought in the West worsens, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado faces a dwindling water supply
TOWAOC — In late June, Simon Martinez drove along one of the dirt roads crisscrossing the parched rocky shrubland on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch Enterprise, a 7,700-acre agricultural operation owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. In normal times, he would be driving past […]
Posted inNews
Wildlife officials ask anglers not to fish the Dolores River for the first time ever as rain fails to dent Western Slope drought
Devastating drought and disappearing runoff in far southwestern Colorado have prompted state officials to seek voluntary fishing restrictions on the Dolores River for the first time, and fish and wildlife leaders say they have their eye on potential closures of the Animas and San Juan rivers as well. Intense rain over the weekend — generating […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado’s major snowstorm only made a dent in the drought. These maps and graphs explain what’s going on.
Despite what multiple feet of snow on the ground might suggest to many Coloradans, the state’s long-term drought remains persistent. And water forecasters are worried that even if the state receives decent spring moisture, Colorado and the greater American Southwest will need lots more to emerge from this drought. The record-breaking storms that buried Front […]
Posted inCOVID, News
EPA settles lawsuit with Utah over Gold King Mine spill
By Brady McCombs, The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. government settled a lawsuit Wednesday brought by the state of Utah over a mine waste spill caused by federal workers that sent wastewater downstream to several states from the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado five years ago. The Environmental Protection Agency […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, Health, News, Politics and Government
Unsheltered and expecting: A southwest Colorado couple could lose their children if they don’t find housing
Amie Dieter and Andrew Miller are expecting — twins, and new neighbors. The couple and others in a community of people experiencing homelessness live on a rocky hillside near the Animas River just south of Durango. In early April, as the nation and Colorado prepared for the impacts of the coronavirus, about 30 people inhabited […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Growth, Water
Aurora spent $34 million on water from a toxic mine. It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
FAIRPLAY — Joe Harrington unfurls the map of the mine he owns, a once notorious source of toxic cadmium and zinc tainting water in the South Platte River basin. He traces his finger along a 20-mile fault line, an underground wall of clay known as the London Fault that runs through the London Mine’s maze […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Water
Colorado’s rivers are starting to swell — but there are still feet of snow left to melt in the high country
There is still snow left to melt — feet deep in some areas — in Colorado’s high country as the state’s rivers begin to swell after one of the heaviest winters in recent memory. Forecasters say the Colorado, Yampa and Animas rivers in the western half of the state could be running above normal into […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News
“Flood buddies” and sandbags: Southern Colorado readies for rain after last summer’s massive fire
Southern Colorado residents who watched the Spring Creek Fire sweep across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains last summer now look worriedly at the more than 108,000 acres of charred land. This year, they vigilantly watch for rain clouds. Even a quarter inch of rain pouring onto those devastated slopes could bring a new disaster to […]