After two decades resisting Environmental Protection Agency funds for cleanup of the festering mines that dot its surroundings, Silverton on Tuesday announced it is seeking federal help.
A joint resolution passed by the town’s board and the San Juan County Commission says officials will work with neighboring communities to petition Congress for federal disaster dollars they hope will address leaching sites quickly.
“Silverton and San Juan County understand that this problem is in our district, and we feel we bear a greater responsibility to our downstream neighbors to help find a solution,” the resolution said.
The decision is a paradigm shift for the small town of about 650 year-round residents in the wake of a 3 million-gallon wastewater spill Aug. 5 at the Gold King Mine in the mountains to the north.
Many in Silverton for years have sought to quash worries about the effects of its digging heritage, but now, after pressure brought on by the EPA-caused disaster, they are shifting their tone.
“I think it’s showing that we’re well-aware that we have a responsibility as a headwater county and as a county with leaking mines,” county commissioner Peter McKay said Tuesday.
Silverton’s wariness toward the EPA has been centered around the agency’s wanting to designate the area a Superfund site. Such a label could have brought substantial remediation funds, but with it, the community feared, stigma as being a priority hazard site.
“What I think we’re doing now is moving beyond a specific label and going right to Congress to bypass a designation that might bring with it controversy,” McKay said.
He added that a Superfund designation could slow immediate cleanup because of its bureaucratic process.
Mark Esper, editor of The Silverton Standard and the Miner, says he believes the resolution, in part, was drafted in response to bad publicity for the town after the Gold King release. When orange-yellow sludge flowed from Cement Creek into the Animas and San Juan rivers, communities downstream lambasted Silverton for its historical hesitation toward the EPA.
“The town and the county, elected officials, two years ago were presented with an option for (Superfund), and they basically waved goodbye to the EPA,” Esper said. “They’ve been offered serious help, and they have basically turned it down in the past.”
He said the resolution, which was unanimously approved, could show officials are more willing to get the cleanup finished.
“They’re trying to appear to be more proactive on this,” Esper said.
Town and county officials say the new resolution does not mean Superfund designation is off the table. However, Silverton’s administrator, Bill Gardner, said Tuesday that the town needs Congress “to help us deal with this problem now.”
“This is not the time for the blame game,” he said. “It’s time to find the money to fix the problem. Going backward and pointing fingers isn’t going to take us anywhere.”
Waste continues leaching from the Gold King at about 600 gallons per minute and other nearby sites are also spilling hundreds of gallons of contaminants.
Officials say they hope disaster funding would pay for building and operating a water treatment facility in upper Cement Creek near the Gold King and for further remediation of contaminated mines in the Upper Animas River Basin.
They say the federal money also could help support communities downstream from Gold King that were hit hard by its contaminants, particularly the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes and the Navajo Nation.
It was unclear Tuesday how much money Silverton and San Juan County are seeking and, if granted the funds, who would be contracted to do the work. Officials say they hope to submit a dollar amount to congressional leadership within the next several days.
Members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation said Tuesday they will stand behind Silverton and San Juan County.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said he, like his constituents in Silverton, remains opposed to Superfund designation.
“With regard to federal assistance, Congressman Tipton’s office is reviewing all of the options to determine what is most appropriate and doable,” said his spokesman, Josh Green.
“We’ll continue to press the EPA and other federal agencies to provide every possible resource to respond to this disaster,” said Philip Clelland, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat. “If they lack the funding to provide the necessary relief, we’ll work in Congress to make sure they have the resources.”
As for the people of Silverton, the town hopes outsiders know the tiny mountain enclave is taking the Gold King spill and other mine problems — many of which are more than a century old — seriously.
“This is my town,” said Christine Tookey, Silverton’s mayor. “We’re trying to make sure that the people down below us aren’t jumping and telling us we’re country bumpkins and whatever other words they’re using because their river has suddenly turned orange.”
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com
