Who Really Caused My River to Turn Orange?
People Kayak the Animas River north of Durango, Thursday, August 6th, one day after the Gold King Mine spill. Photo Jerry McBride, Durango Herald via AP
“Koyaanisqatsi” is the Native American Hopi word for life out of balance
This is the first part of a ten part series called “Through the Lens of the Animas River” that explores the August 5, 2015 Animas River spill in southwest Colorado. Each blog in this series looks at a different aspect and deeper story behind the spill. All Embracing Change Blog is focused on change, how to create it, embrace it and in particular the relationship between paradigms of countries, cultures and collective humanity relate to the systems we build, the patterns we see and experiences we have. All of those are change points, areas we can influence change but require different approaches and time scales. Learn more about a change, paradigm shifts or play Blame It Name It Change It or sign up for the All Embracing Change Newsletter.
On August 5, 2015 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accidentally released a spill of metals laden acidic mine water from the Gold King Mine. This turned the Animas River orange and the entire country watch this butterscotch plume travel from Silverton, Colorado through Durango, on to Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico, then Bluff, Utah and into Lake Powell. The plume also went through Southern Ute and Navajo Nation Tribal Lands. The story went viral and international. Perhaps that is because an orange river is an excellent visual story or maybe the irony that EPA caused a harmful spill and they are the agency responsible to protect us from such spills.
While the EPA caused a spill, they are not responsible for why toxic water was leaking out this or any other abandoned mine, nor is the fix solely on the shoulders of EPA. The pre spill conditions and post spill real change solutions are on you and me, all of us. That is why looking deeper into aspects of this event is necessary. We have to ask questions beyond, what caused the spill and will EPA restore harm done? Those questions are being addressed right now. We have to connecting some dots, take responsibility and do something different. This spill was a wakeup call for us to be the change agents we are.
I will qualify my statement that the EPA is responsible for those harmed by the spill. As someone who lives in Durango, has been part of the Animas River remediation for 20 years and as a water quality specialist, and one who was there for the spill, I believe EPA is showing up and doing everything possible, maybe not perfectly (no such thing), but possible to restore harm. More on the response in Blog 5 of this series.
To answer who the question who really turned the Animas River orange, we need to look at what was in place before this event. What led to the EPA coming to Silverton to assess a leaking mine in order to determine how to stop the leakage permanently. This is what I call pre-spill context and that provides more information on what is needed in the long term to generate real change than details of the spill itself.
Every system we have in place, legal, institutional, cultural, spoken or unspoken and otherwise is a product of a collective set of beliefs. Beliefs or paradigms create the systems we build. Systems in all sectors of life, for example safety and freedom vector we have the systems and comprise our military, defense, laws, prison and justice systems. Each vector, economy, education, health, food, housing and the environment all have numerous systems that govern how it will behave in predictable way. Over the history of man, what has informed those beliefs varies.
The systems we have today are a product of beliefs that are outdated. A great example of that is cigarettes. The growth of cigarettes stemmed from a paradigm that it was cool and safe to smoke. Based of that paradigm we built systems in advertising, production, banking and so forth that supported smoking. As we later learned, smoking was not what we though, we changed our paradigm and adjusted our systems. You cannot market to children, taxes and warning labels are designed to reduce smoking for example.
I share these to illustrate how beliefs create systems. Systems operate and we begin to see patterns, people who smoke for a long time or a lot get cancer for example. And from those patterns we have experience what may seem like isolated events. Some acute and some chronic. Tracing events back to patterns and systems uncover the underlying beliefs or paradigms.
We had a paradigm about water before 1972. That paradigm was that our rivers and oceans could absorb whatever we put into them, out of site out of mind. Systems reflected that paradigm, a discharge permit what was that? We began experiencing events, like rivers catching on fire, people getting sick, really sick. We analyzed experienced and realized there was a pattern connected with discharges from industrial process (we all benefitted from). We realized the systems in place to provide protection of common goods like water and air were not adequate. We changed our paradigm. We said no, there is a limit, boundaries for which anyone can put anything into common resources. That paradigm shift recognized we would not have water for our children if we did not change our paradigm. The result was a change in systems, like the creation of the EPA and the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act. Which is designed to create rules, regulations and provided funding to ensure waters of the USA are fishable and swimmable. The Clean Water Act uses tools such as discharge permits that limit pollution and fines. The EPA doesn’t work for industry, they exist for you and me, created to protect us from industries primary paradigm, one we still accept. And that is that corporations exist to make profits and are not required to have to have social or environmental responsibility, beyond of course what is imposed by regulations, environmental, banking and otherwise. This puts EPA’s mission, and our paradigm that limiting pollution is necessary, at direct odds with corporation paradigms and associated systems. More on this in Blog 2 of this series.
This corporate paradigm also leaves a wake of external costs for others to pay. External costs are those costs incurred by a transaction is not directly paid for or included as in the price tag. Others being you and me, our children, nonprofits, government agencies, churches, social organizations and networks and other countries. The mining legacy Americans left behind from the gold rush era is an example of an external cost, left for you and me to pay.
Back to my orange Animas River. The Gold King Mine was built in a paradigm that encouraged mineral extraction. In fact the general Mining Law of 1872 made mining cheap and easy. We were building America’s industrial age, it made sense with what we knew then. The Gold King Mine was a producer in its day. The 1887 mine claim made profits for its owners. And for any real miner, there is no such thing as a waste pile or abandoned mine. The mine has been closed since the 1920’s. But miners will wait for technology or market conditions to get the last bit of ore from an operation. This is America, nothing wrong with wanting to extract ore for a living. That is not the point. If conditions allowed, the Gold King Mine could operate today under the conditions set forth in the 1872 General Mining Law. If you have not figured it out, now is the light bulb moment.
That law no longer matches our values, what we know, what is the new paradigm. We know this law is not adequate to protect resources. We know it causes external costs, some of which are never recovered. This spill is an example of an external cost. Some rivers are damaged beyond repair, the Clean Water Act calls this “irreversible anthropogenic (man-made) sources”. We know we don’t have enough resources to clean up this legacy. We know water is finite. We know the existing regulations and rules are not getting the job done. Abandoned mines like Gold King are all over the west, Earthworks, estimates that we have over 500,000 abandoned mines leaking into our headwaters, which is a finite resource that will cost an estimated 50 billion dollars to clean up.
We have known this because we created another system to work around this (rather than change our paradigm). Some entities have been working on what is called Good Samaritan Legislation. This would allow a third party, like a nonprofit, state agency, EPA or Forest Service, to clean up an abandoned mine and meet Clean Water Act regulations and not be subjected to the liability of the owner. Win win right? Mining industry has successfully lobbied to keep this from passing for almost 20 years.
Congress has a bill before it that will reform the 1872 General Mining Law, H.R. 963, the Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act of 2015, introduced by Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona. Changing systems is the beginning of changing entire paradigms. At some point a critical mass of system changes flips the prevailing paradigm on its head, like an iceberg rolling over in the ocean..
If we had a different paradigm, the EPA may not have been there that day or would be there with different resources and support. EPA is funded by tax dollars that compete with other priorities. Industry is funded by profit that has great interest in keeping all systems that threaten profit in check. Your tax dollars cannot, will not ever compete to provide enough funds to pay for historic and current external costs being generated. Climate change is another example of external costs our current paradigm is creating for our children and grandchildren.
EPA was doing a good thing that August 5th day. Something no one else could do. Something within their role and resources. Yes, it is apparent their numbers, approach and emergency plan were not sufficient and caused a spill. But why they were there was not their fault, in fact it was their duty. The paradigm we have accepted and still accept today turned my Animas River orange. I want to spare every other community from experiencing this, but these events will continue, more frequently, until a critical mass that includes you, me, industry, government, nonprofits, academia and everyone tip the iceberg so a new paradigm builds a new system. It is our duty.
Part 2 of the “Through the Lens of the Animas River” blog series that explores the August 5, 2015 Animas River spill in southwest Colorado, is titled, “How to Get Rid of the Environmental Protection Agency”.
“We cannot be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.” Jimmy Carter.