{"id":32130,"date":"2023-08-22T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T02:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-8-years-businesses-gold-king-claims-denied\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:53:24","slug":"after-8-years-businesses-gold-king-claims-denied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-8-years-businesses-gold-king-claims-denied\/","title":{"rendered":"After 8 years, businesses\u2019 Gold King claims denied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"David
David Moler, the owner of Durango Rivertrippers & Adventure Tours, opens a letter from the EPA on Monday informing him that his claim for thousands of dollars in economic damages after the Gold King Mine spill had been denied. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For months, and even years after the blowout at the Gold King Mine, businesses that lost money because of the pollution of the Animas River were told they would be made whole.<\/p>\n

Now, 98 claimants have received an answer from the Environmental Protection Agency: two thirds of claims were denied.<\/p>\n

Business owners who rely on the river\u2019s resources were informed that economic damages lacking any claim or evidence of physical injury \u2013 such as the inability to guide rafting or fishing trips \u2013 were not authorized under federal law.<\/p>\n

The remaining one third of claimants who did get compensation received $2,500.<\/p>\n

EPA contractors breached a plug holding back about 3 million gallons of heavy-metal laden mine drainage on Aug. 5, 2015. The breach discolored the river, flooded the internet with images of the mustard-colored water, and shut down recreation for over a week.<\/p>\n

Rafting companies pulled boats from the Animas River before the plume of yellow water reached Durango, irrigation ditches were forced to close and for years, fishing guides were asked whether the river was safe.<\/p>\n

The EPA took responsibility for the spill and ultimately reached large-dollar settlements with New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and the Navajo Nation and several hundred individual plaintiffs. But 98 claimants held out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us to take our time and use our resources to prepare these claims so that they could provide restitution to the damage they caused,\u201d said Alex Mickel, the co-owner of Mild to Wild Rafting and Jeep Tours.<\/p>\n

Rafting businesses and fishing guiding outfits lost tens of thousands of dollars in revenue<\/a> when the river was closed and in the months that followed. Long after the yellow plume had passed and the river reopened, the stigma lingered.<\/p>\n

Initially, the Obama administration\u2019s EPA told claimants they would not receive any compensation, citing sovereign immunity, a doctrine that bars most lawsuits against the federal government.<\/p>\n

The decision sparked a backlash. When Scott Pruitt took over as EPA administrator under former President Donald Trump, businesses received letters indicating that the claims would be reconsidered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was appointed Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I committed to review a decision by the previous administration regarding the Gold King Mine incident that left so many impacted people without any support or help from the federal government,\u201d Pruitt wrote in a letter to Duranglers, a downtown fishing guide outfit. \u201cThe time has come for the EPA to deliver on that promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

By mid-2018, however, Pruitt had resigned <\/a>amid swirling allegations of unethical conduct, and business owners had nothing to show for his efforts.<\/p>\n

So it was with pessimism that David Moler, the owner of Durango Rivertrippers & Adventure Tours, opened a letter on Monday from the EPA, which had arrived by certified mail.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Moler, the owner of Durango Rivertrippers & Adventure Tours, opened a letter from the EPA on Monday informing him that his claim for thousands of dollars in economic damages after the Gold King Mine spill had been denied. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhile the EPA regrets the loss, the claim does not meet the standards for coverage under the Federal Tort Claims Act,\u201d the letter read. \u201cAccordingly, the claim is denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mickel received a similar letter.<\/p>\n

Both declined to share the size of their claims, but said that their economic losses were many thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

\n

Breakdown of the 98 administrative claims <\/h4>\n

33 were seeking damages for agricultural losses and\/or livestock-related losses
\n 22 were homeowners seeking property damages and\/or diminution in property value
\n 21 are businesses seeking lost profits
\n 17 are individuals seeking lost wages
\n 2 are local governments in New Mexico
\n 3 are miscellaneous claims that don\u2019t fall into any particular category<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Meg Broughton declined to specify which of the 98 claims were denied. However, she said one of the most common reasons for denial was \u201cseeking damages for \u2018pure economic losses.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Decreased tourism or the inability to guide trips on a shutdown river falls into this category, and such claims are not authorized under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Broughton wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay we would\u2019ve had a dock in the river that was damaged, that they would compensate for or had it caused the flood that went through our office building that they would compensate for,\u201d Mickel said. \u201cIn our case, shutting down the business for a couple of weeks is not something they compensate for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claimants now have six months to submit challenges in federal district court. But Mickel and Moler both say they are unlikely to pursue litigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re just out of luck,\u201d Mickel said. \u201cTo sue the federal government is not something a mom and pop operation can really afford to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

100 businesses and individuals applied for compensation for losses related to the spill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[174,739,885,2043,2138,2461,28,1799],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-fishing","tag-fishing-industry","tag-gold-king-mine","tag-gold-king-mine-spill","tag-headlines","tag-rafting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32130","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=32130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81686,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32130\/revisions\/81686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32130"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}