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As It Happens

After spill from a mine, a kayaker winds up in yellowy-orange wastewater

David Farkas says it's not unusual for the water in the Animas River in Colorado to be discoloured. But this turned out to be different. "The closest thing I can compare it to is Fanta orange soda pop."
CBC News ·
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald/AP)
As It Happens9:04Man goes kayaking in yellowy-orange wastewater

Normally, the Animas River in Colorado is clear. But yesterday, when avid kayaker David Farkas got to the water, it was orange and viscous. But knowing that iron ore from the mountains in Silverton sometimes discolours the water, Farkas was not deterred from paddling out into the muck. 

Unbeknownst to Farkas at the time, the water had actually been contaminated by a breach at the Gold King Mine.

When Farkas got into the river, he could smell something was off -- and he could taste it. It tasted like metal. But, as he tells As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong, "we didn't really put two and two together."

When Farkas and his fellow kayakers got to the end of the run, a local reporter was at the bank, taking pictures. The reporter tipped them off: they'd been paddling through "the height . . . of the sludge run off." 

Dan Bender, with the La Plata County Sheriff's Office, takes a water sample from the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. ( (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP) )

"When I found out what it was . . . I was feeling a little off."

Farkas was driving home when he heard the details in a broadcast telling people in the town to stay out of the river completely.

"I . . . showered, drank a ton of water, trying to flush this out of my system, ate some food." 

As of yet, there are no definitive reports of what exactly the water is contaminated with.

"I'm sure it's heavy metals. I've heard it's very acidic. We have a gold metal trout stream that flows through town. Who knows what's going to happen? 

"Our entire community is really taken aback by this. Everybody in Durango wraps themselves around the identity of our river, because it's right in the middle of town." 
 

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