Gold mine waste heads toward Navajo lands

Jacob Nierenberg

Jacob Nierenberg Jun 28, 2025

Jan 12, 2018

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                <h1>Gold mine waste heads toward Navajo lands</h1>
                <h2><p>An environmental catastrophe is underway in southwestern Colorado. Last week, a staggering 3 million gallons of contaminated water—three times what CNN initially reported—leaked out of the Gold King Mine into the Animas River, which has since turned a sickly mustard color. Evidently, the EPA, which normally cleans up</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/jacob-nierenberg-crosscut-com/">Jacob Nierenberg</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>An environmental catastrophe is underway in southwestern Colorado. Last week, a staggering 3 million gallons of contaminated water—<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/09/us/colorado-epa-mine-river-spill/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">three times what <em>CNN</em> initially reported</a>—leaked out of the Gold King Mine into the Animas River, which has since turned a sickly mustard color. Evidently, the EPA, which normally cleans up this type of disaster, accidentally caused it in the process of attempting to pump the water out of the mine, and now a cloud of toxic metals, such as lead and arsenic, is swiftly moving down the river. The Animas also flows through Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and According to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/09/navajo-nation-epa-spill/31384515/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">two</a> USA Today <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/10/navajo-nation-epa-mine-wastewater-spill/31399517/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">stories</a>, the incident is expected to hit the Navajo Nation the hardest; many Navajo settlements lie along the river, which the Nation relies on for farming. If a solution is not found fast, many will face a devastating loss of crops and livestock.</p>
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An environmental catastrophe is underway in southwestern Colorado. Last week, a staggering 3 million gallons of contaminated water—three times what CNN initially reported—leaked out of the Gold King Mine into the Animas River, which has since turned a sickly mustard color. Evidently, the EPA, which normally cleans up this type of disaster, accidentally caused it in the process of attempting to pump the water out of the mine, and now a cloud of toxic metals, such as lead and arsenic, is swiftly moving down the river. The Animas also flows through Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and According to two USA Today stories, the incident is expected to hit the Navajo Nation the hardest; many Navajo settlements lie along the river, which the Nation relies on for farming. If a solution is not found fast, many will face a devastating loss of crops and livestock.

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By Jacob Nierenberg

Jacob Nierenberg is an editorial intern at Crosscut. He has lived in Washington for nearly all of his life, and still proudly identifies with the Pacific Northwest despite his relocation to Stanford U