It is no doubt a great relief to residents of La Plata County that more than a week after it was closed due to an accident that dumped 3 million gallons of wastewater into Cement Creek.
Sheriff Sean Smith made the right call given assurances from state and local health officials.
Notice we didn’t say federal officials. That’s because the state led the way in assessing the risk.
In information sent to the press, the sheriff indicated his decision was based on assurances from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the San Juan Basin Health Department that “it is safe to reopen the river to recreational use.”
The decisive piece of evidence appears to have been the state’s tests of sediment in the river, which were released Thursday, with levels “below what would be a concern for human health during typical recreational exposure.”
When the sheriff opened the river, he also had preliminary data from sediment samples taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but those results were not validated and posted on its website until later that afternoon.
This sequence — with the state out ahead of the federal government — also mirrors the pattern of testing of the river’s water.
Early this week, the state determined that the river’s water had essentially returned to pre-spill concentrations of heavy metals. But the EPA didn’t confirm that until Wednesday.
In fact, an EPA official actually chided Gov. John Hickenlooper for suggesting water quality was back to normal levels when he was in Durango on Tuesday.
“We’re not there yet,” the official admonished,
“That’s nonsense,” Hickenlooper brusquely responded.
State officials’ obvious frustration with the federal agency, which was responsible for the spill in the first place, was warranted. The livelihoods of those who rely on the river were at stake.
Hickenlooper went so far as to drink water from the river — although not before dropping an iodine tablet into the bottle to protect himself from giardia and E. coli. This was a stunt, to be sure, since drinking river water is not advisable even without a toxic spill, but it had a serious point: “If that shows that Durango is open for business, I’m happy to help,” the governor said.
There are plenty of things to do in Durango and its environs, which are as beautiful as any part of Colorado, besides raft on the river. But the state deserves credit for its aggressive approach, within the bounds of safety, in determining whether the river could be reopened.
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