EPA Spills Toxic Waste into River, Causes State of Emergency. How Are Farms Affected?

Joe Wheeling, a co-owner of the James Ranch in Durango, Colorado, tells Modern Farmer that they rely almost exclusively on water from the Animas River for their irrigation needs. Their crops went without water for “three or four days” before the EPA agreed to provide them with water from Durango, but he says “it’s not a huge amount.”

Wheeling runs the The Gardens at the 400-acre ranch, along with his wife Jenn. They grow organic produce, flowers, and herbs. There’s also a dairy and grass-fed beef cattle operation there. He says that because they had ponds at the ranch they were able to water the cattle from there, but that “it’s impacted our irrigation and grazing cycle.”

The EPA’s response was slow at first, says Wheeling, and there was a lack of information.

“Early on [the EPA] did a very poor job of communication. It seemed initially we were dealing with a bureaucracy. I think they’ve improved,” says Wheeling. “They don’t really know how to respond when they’re on the other side of the table.”

Trying to get an exact number on the farms and ranches impacted by the spill hasn’t been an easy task.

Wheeling believes it was pressure from local and state lawmakers that helped get the federal agency to be more proactive in communicating with the people impacted by the spill.

Eighty miles down river in Shiprock, New Mexico, the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation made the decision this past Monday to keep irrigation from the Animas River closed for the remainder of the season, the Navajo Times reports.

Local farmer Earl Yazzie told the Navajo Times, “You can’t describe the extent of hurt that we’ve been thrown into.”

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said to ABC News that the Navajo people are in “dire need of clean water” for drinking as well as farming. “I meet people daily that weep when they see me, asking me, ‘How do I know the water will be safe?’ The Animas River and the San Juan rivers are our lifelines. Water is sacred to us. The spirit of our people is being impacted,” he said to ABC.

“We are in the middle of farming season, which is only four to five months of the whole year,” Begaye said. “The revenue from these crops is what our farmers need to live off for the rest of the year, so without irrigation water, they are doomed.”

At the time of the incident last week, the EPA was using heavy equipment to try to enter the mine to begin pumping out and treating water that was known to be inside. Things went awry when loose material that plugged the mine gave way, causing an outpouring of water that contained high levels of iron, zinc, lead, arsenic, and more.

Trying to get an exact number on the farms and ranches impacted by the spill hasn’t been an easy task since information is still coming in from the various agencies.

There was a period of between three and seven days when irrigation water was shut down to an estimated 2,500 acres of land, and while that’s tough on crops, it’s the potential residual effects from the heavy metals that is more worrisome. And as of now there’s no way to quantify that.

A contact at the United States Department of Agriculture tells Modern Farmer that it’s still gathering information and doesn’t have any final data on what farms are affected, or how many, but that its county field offices are “communicating with producers in the interim to assess local conditions.”

The agency is “monitoring conditions closely to gather information on potential agricultural needs. That will let us know what might be necessary, or possible,” the source said.

What we do know is that in Colorado, there was a period of between three and seven days when irrigation water was shut down to an estimated 2,500 acres of land, and while that’s tough on crops, it’s the potential residual effects from the heavy metals that are more worrisome. And as of now there’s no way to quantify those effects.

According to CNN, one sample of mercury in the water was almost 10 times EPA acceptable levels. One sample of arsenic was 800 times EPA acceptable levels.

The river has been officially closed since the accident, disallowing towns and municipalities along the river from using the water for drinking, irrigation supply, and fishing. The La Plata County Sheriff, where Durango is located, opened the river to recreation as of noon today, albeit with a health advisory. Both Colorado and New Mexico have declared state emergencies. In Durango’s North Valley, water supply ditches were flushed for a 12-hour period on Wednesday and sampling and testing was conducted during that time, according to a La Plata County press release. It’s believed that by the end of the weekend the water supply for agricultural use will be back to normal.

Water near the incident now appears to be running clear, while water more than 100 miles away continues to carry the orange sludge. The Animas River runs into the San Juan River, which runs through the San Juan National Forest, and into Lake Powell.

Back in Colorado, toxic metals in the river water are back to pre-spill levels, according to Colorado’s top health official, Dr. Larry Wolk.

Wheeling says they are taking it slowly when it comes to returning to using the river for irrigation purposes and will be looking for a variety of indicators before they do. Until then they’ll continue to use the water that’s being driven over from Durango to water their crops. He says the ranch invested in a sand filtering system for the farm a couple of years ago, which should help with providing clean water when they do return to using the Animas River.

“We’re pretty confident that that will filter out whatever remaining sediment might be there. We’re not just jumping into things. We’re being cautious,” he says by phone. “At the end of the day it’s the trust our customers have in us and we take that trust very seriously.”