As communities along the Animas River continue to wonder about long-term consequences of the Gold King Mine spill, one of the biggest questions remaining is the orange sediment lying along riverbeds and riverbanks.
The EPA says its initial testing on sediment samples taken from the Animas River between Bakers Bridge and North Durango show there is no risk to people from the sediment for recreational purposes.
Many Durango residents who attended a public meeting the EPA on Thursday night asked about the metal levels in the sediment data only to be told that they should ask those same questions to the “experts” in a breakout session.
At the session, EPA toxicologist Kristen Keteles said she used the maximum level in historical data she could find to show how levels of the different metals compare over the time humans have been measuring them.
But Colorado School of Mines professor and toxicologist Dr. Danny Teitelbaum called the sediment data questionable.
Teitelbaum said samples taken from the Animas River between the Howardsville St. Gage Station – north of Silverton – and Bakers Bridge in 2012, 2013 and 2014 showed elevated levels of lead and arsenic, which pose major health concerns.
But, he said, the EPA has provided so little information about the methodology it used when doing its Aug. 11 sediment sampling that it is impossible even for experts to discern whether there are unsafe levels of lead and arsenic in the sediment near Durango now.
Specifically, he said, the EPA has not explained whether the recent sediment samples were extracted from the actual riverbed or the surface of the water.
On Saturday, after two weeks and multiple requests from the Herald, the EPA responded for comment about how the agency gathered and interpreted the sediment data. Agency scientists didn’t sample from either the surface of the water or the river channel but from the bank where people might physically come into contact with it.