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River communities and the politics of water safety: understanding water quality debates following the Gold King mine spill
Holmes, Rebecca
Holmes, Rebecca
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2023
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Abstract
In the aftermath of a major disaster, scientists often face a dilemma. On the one hand, scientists are tasked with answering urgent questions about environmental safety. On the other hand, disaster-related science is often contested as stakeholders grapple with uncertainties and unknowns, questions of responsibility and blame, and related post-disaster dynamics. This study explores this dilemma in the aftermath of the 2015 Gold King Mine spill in Colorado, USA, which occurred when a mine clean-up effort led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally spilled over 11 million liters of toxic acid-mine drainage into the Animas River. We ask how a river is declared “safe” after a large-scale water quality disaster such as this, by whom, and based on what metrics. Further, we examine how scientific claims about water safety were received in three different locations: the Colorado cities of Silverton and Durango, plus the sovereign Navajo Nation. We use the local newspaper in each location as a window into local disaster discourse and systematically analyze three months of media coverage after the spill. Drawing on a framework from Cash et al. (2003), we find that scientific salience, credibility, and legitimacy were central to debates over water quality in Silverton, Durango, and Navajo Nation, respectively. In addition, we argue that science communicators must consider the strengths and limitations of relevant regulatory standards when they produce disaster science and that these limitations should be publicly acknowledged. After the Gold King Mine Spill, water quality standards did not address all the public’s concerns about river safety. Given projections that disasters are likely to increase in frequency and intensity with human influence on climate and the environment, it is increasingly important to examine the processes of disruption – and repair – that occur after these catastrophic events.
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