The office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Thursday that the state has agreed to a $5 million settlement with the federal government to resolve natural resource damages claims in the Bonita Peak Mining District, located in San Juan County near Silverton.
The federal government did not admit any liability in the settlement, although the agreement releases it from any future liability for damages to natural resources as a result of mining contamination in the district. The government’s liability stems from federal agencies’ management of lands in the district, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s role in the Aug. 5, 2015, Gold King mine spill.
The funds will be distributed at the direction of the state’s natural resource trustees Weiser; Jill Ryan, Colorado’s top public health official; and Dan Gibbs, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
The use and distribution of funds will be determined in collaboration with local and regional stakeholders.
The BPMD Superfund Site was formed following the 2015 Gold King mine spill. The mine blowout sent 3 million gallons of mustard-yellow mine drainage containing heavy metals down Cement Creek and into the Animas River. The startling images of the yellow river were burned into the national consciousness and businesses that rely on the river still field questions about whether the water is safe for recreation (it is).
In September 2016, the district, containing 48 abandoned mines, was added to the Superfund National Priorities List.
Thursday’s settlement is not the first time the federal government has opened its checkbook following the spill, nor is it the only entity to do so.
In January 2022, Colorado received $4 million of a larger $90 million settlement with the Sunnyside Gold Corp. and the federal government that will go toward the Superfund cleanup. Sunnyside owns an eponymously named mine downhill of the Gold King. A federal investigation found that the volume of polluted water in the Gold King grew after one of the main access tunnels to the Sunnyside Mine was plugged, contributing to the spill.
In 2021, the state’s natural resource trustees agreed to a $1.6 million settlement with Sunnyside, which, unlike the January 2022 settlement, allocated funds for natural resource damage restoration.
The state has also recovered six-figure settlements from other mining corporations involved in activities within the district.
Downstream, New Mexico has inked a $32 million settlement with the federal government, $10 million of which was set aside for natural resource damage restoration. The state reached an additional $11 million settlement with Sunnyside.
The Navajo Nation also reached a $31 million settlement with the federal government.
Peter Butler, chairman of the Bonita Peak Community Advisory Group, which provides citizen input on the cleanup, said it may be some time before funds from this latest settlement are dispensed.
He said the state may prudently wait and see how to best spend funds until the Environmental Protection Agency cleanup in the Bonita Peak Mining District is further along, which could be another 10 or 15 years.
“I think that certainly there could be (stream) habitat improvements upstream of where Howardsville is,” Butler said. “... But I think it's going to be quite a ways off in the future.”
New Mexico received a natural resource damage settlement twice as large as Colorado’s, although its total settlement funds amount to less than half what will be spent in Colorado on clean up and restoration.
“It's always hard to determine whether a settlement is enough or not,” Butler said. “I don't think we really have any idea.”
Although the latest settlement may appear unimpressive stacked against its eight-digit predecessors, Butler is hopeful the state will wield the funds effectively.
He has criticized the EPA over inefficient spending on the Superfund site, which has exceed $75 million according to the agency’s estimate, but may be closer to $115 million according to Butler. The money has yielded little in the way of tangible results, Butler says. The agency did install a wastewater treatment facility in the months following the spill and will begin construction on a permanent repository for solid mine waste this summer.
“The state will get a lot more out of $5 million than the EPA will,” Butler said.
Stakeholders who wish to give input on how funds from this settlement can be used on restoration projects can do so on Wednesday at a meeting with Attorney General Weiser. The community meeting will take place from 4-5 p.m. at the Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation in suite 225.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
