County officials celebrate opening of boat ramp funded by Gold King Mine spill money

CEDAR HILL — A variety of San Juan County and state officials christened the latest addition to the county’s inventory of outdoor recreation attractions on Tuesday, June 6, as they held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Animas River boat ramp here.

The $209,000 project — funded mostly with Gold King Mine spill lawsuit settlement money — is located just off County Road 2390 on the south bank of the Animas River and the east side of U.S. Highway 550. It includes a ramp where watercraft can be launched or removed, a restroom, a changing station, benches, newly planted trees, landscape boulders and a gravel parking lot.

The ramp has been open for public use since May 11, but the ribbon-cutting ceremony was postponed from its original date of May 16 because of the mass shooting that took place in Farmington a day earlier.

That delay hardly dented the air of celebration that hung in the air Tuesday as a few dozen people — including county commissioners, state legislators, state officials and outdoor recreation enthusiasts — gathered to get their first look at the site. The ramp is the first project to be completed with $1 million in settlement money from the New Mexico Environment Department’s lawsuit against the Sunnyside Gold Corporation, the Kinross Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold U.S.A. Inc. for injuries to natural resources in New Mexico as a result of the August 2015 toxic waste spill into the Animas and San Juan rivers from the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

The new boat ramp on the Animas River at Cedar Hill was funded primarily through Gold King Mine spill lawsuit settlement money.
The new boat ramp on the Animas River at Cedar Hill was funded primarily through Gold King Mine spill lawsuit settlement money.

It also is the only public-access point for the launching and removal of watercraft on the Animas River between Durango, Colorado, and Aztec, making it a valued addition for river rafting operators.

“I am thrilled to be here today to see this in real life and all the people from the county to support this,” Maggie Hart Stebbins, the New Mexico natural resources trustee, whose agency oversaw the dispersal of funding for the project, said after the ceremony. “It helps us feel like these projects will have a real impact on people’s lives.”

Maggie Hart Stebbins, the New Mexico natural resources trustee, discusses her agency's involvement in the creation of a new boat ramp on the Animas River in Cedar Hill on Tuesday, June 6.
Maggie Hart Stebbins, the New Mexico natural resources trustee, discusses her agency's involvement in the creation of a new boat ramp on the Animas River in Cedar Hill on Tuesday, June 6.

Hart Stebbins said the state’s litigation that produced the settlement money demonstrates that protecting natural resources — the task with which her agency is charged — is not the antithesis of economic development.

“In fact, it’s an important element of job creation,” she said, noting that the boat ramp is the first of 14 such projects that will be funded with proceeds from the Gold King Mine spill litigation against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA contractors and the mine’s former operators.

The Cedar Hill boat ramp project on the Animas River also includes a restroom and changing area.
The Cedar Hill boat ramp project on the Animas River also includes a restroom and changing area.

That list includes the planned construction of a standing wave designed to attract surfers that will be built further downstream on the Animas River near the Farmington Museum at Gateway Park, along with boat ramp and park improvements at various locations on the San Juan River.

In his public remarks before the ceremony, San Juan County Commission Chairman Steve Lanier described how the county’s public works department headed by Nic Porell stepped in to build the project when the county was unable to find a contractor willing to take it on.

San Juan County Commission Chairman Steve Lanier gestures toward the pillars of the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks that remain standing at the site of a new boat ramp on the Animas River in Cedar Hill on Tuesday, June 6.
San Juan County Commission Chairman Steve Lanier gestures toward the pillars of the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks that remain standing at the site of a new boat ramp on the Animas River in Cedar Hill on Tuesday, June 6.

“In doing so, they saved us about $300,000,” Lanier said.

Hart Stebbins said it was a pleasure for her agency to work with San Juan County officials.

“It’s a great project, and you got it completed on time and under budget, which is amazing,” she said.

Lanier expressed a personal attachment to the project, recounting how he had grown up on his grandparents’ farm just upriver from the spot where the ramp is located. That connection made him a full supporter of the project from the beginning, he said.

“I was all in right away,” he said.

Lanier described how, as a teen, he used to jump off the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad bridge that once crossed the river, though now only the pillars that once supported that bridge remain. He expressed his satisfaction at the thought that the county has created a better use for the spot.

“To be able to use the river in a real way is just fantastic,” he said.

The right of way where the ramp is located was donated to the county, the City of Aztec and the City of Farmington in 1971 just a few years after the track was abandoned and decommissioned by the D&RGW, according to a sign posted at the site. The property had remained undeveloped since then.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com.

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This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Ramp will provide new access for Animas River rafting enthusiasts