{"id":110404,"date":"2015-08-08T03:01:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T09:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-businesses-starting-to-feel-the-pinch-from-a-soiled-animas-river\/"},"modified":"2015-08-08T03:01:04","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T09:01:04","slug":"local-businesses-starting-to-feel-the-pinch-from-a-soiled-animas-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-businesses-starting-to-feel-the-pinch-from-a-soiled-animas-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Local businesses starting to feel the pinch from a soiled Animas River"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zalneraitis\"
Zalneraitis<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local rafting companies say losses are in the thousands of dollars daily.<\/p>\n

While Mild to Wild is offering other excursions in place of rafting trips, many customers had their hearts set on rafting the Animas, said Alex Mickel, one of the founders of the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said of the situation. \u201cIt\u2019s really disappointing.\u201d Normally this time of year, the company is taking 150 to 200 people out on the river daily, and 230 took a trip Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Durango Rafting Co. offers only raft and kayak tours, so the company doesn\u2019t have other tours or activities to offer, an employee said via a shaky cell connection.<\/p>\n

At a minimum, the mining spill in the Animas River will cause a multimillion dollar loss to the area economy, a local economic expert estimated Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a man-made disaster,\u201d said Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata County Economic Alliance. \u201cIt\u2019s striking at the heart of what our community is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zalneraitis was taking a walk on the river trail Friday, joining dozens of tourists and locals who were stopping to stare at the oddly colored orange water flowing by.<\/p>\n

The alliance, which works to recruit and retain businesses in the county, will have an emergency meeting Monday to decide what the group should do in regard to the spill.<\/p>\n

While the rafting and kayak businesses are obviously impacted, the ripples in the economy from the spill will spread beyond the Durango area, Zalneraitis said. He said he already has heard from a person who is canceling plans to buy a second home in Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try to figure out what we can and ought to do to help the situation,\u201d Zalneraitis said.<\/p>\n

Options include supporting \u201cGood Samaritan\u201d legislation that would have allowed groups to clean up sources of pollution that are fouling the area\u2019s waterways.<\/p>\n

If such legislation had been enacted 10 years ago, for example, \u201cwe would have a less of a chance of seeing something like this,\u201d he said, nodding at the river.<\/p>\n

A handful of visitors are canceling their trips entirely, but many have been willing to switch from a rafting trip to a Jeep tour, said Bruce Moss, owner of Gateway Durango Reservations.<\/p>\n

So far, none of his clients has canceled their train reservations on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, even though it travels to and from Silverton along the Animas River.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a different color of river, that\u2019s all,\u201d he said, only half-joking.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Moss has had to deal with an unexpected crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had fires, lack of snow, rain, but this is a new one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Moss added. In mid-August, rafting isn\u2019t necessarily as popular as other events. \u201cIf this were the first of July, we would really be seeing the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is also the weekend for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado to host 32 anglers from across the country for the Dos Mosca fly-fishing tournament, which raises money for the group.<\/p>\n

This year, the anglers were going to be divided up between the lower Animas and the Pine rivers, so the Animas group moved to other creeks in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cHats off to John Flick, the owner of Duranglers,\u201d which arranged the fishing for the tournament, said Tracy Cornutt, Big Brothers executive director.<\/p>\n

While her group was able to move quickly to change their plans, \u201cit\u2019s an absolute shame,\u201d Cornutt said of the spill. \u201cNot for us but the river in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the DoubleTree Hotel in Durango, the spill hadn\u2019t resulted in increased cancellations so far, said Peter Marshall, the hotel\u2019s general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s too early to tell\u201d the impact, he said. But the river \u201cis one of many things (visitors) take advantage of while they\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help for local businesses<\/h4>\n

The La Plata County Economic Development Alliance said it has contacted state and federal elected officials in Colorado and New Mexico to identify resources to assist local businesses and sole proprietors who have been or will be affected. If your business has been affected or you know businesses, farmers or proprietors who have, call 259-1700 or email roger@yeslpc.com<\/a>. The Alliance will hold a board meeting Monday to discuss ways to help businesses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zalneraitis Local rafting companies say losses are in the thousands of dollars daily. While Mild to Wild is offering other excursions in place of rafting trips, many customers had their hearts set on rafting the Animas, said Alex Mickel, one of the founders of the company. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said of the situation. \u201cIt\u2019s really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[304,11,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-river","tag-economy-general","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110404"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}