River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster

by Jonathan P. Thompson

Overview

"A vivid historical account…Thompson shines in giving a sense of what it means to love a place that's been designated a 'sacrifice zone.'" ​
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Award–winning investigative environmental journalist Jonathan P. Thompson digs into the science, politics, and greed behind the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster, and unearths a litany of impacts wrought by a century and a half of mining, energy development, and fracking in southwestern Colorado. Amid these harsh realities, Thompson explores how a new generation is setting out to make amends.

JONATHAN THOMPSON is a native Westerner with deep roots in southwestern Colorado. He has been an environmental journalist focusing on the American West since he signed on as reporter and photographer at the Silverton Standard&the Miner newspaper in 1996. He has worked and written for High Country News for over a decade, serving as editor–in–chief from 2007 to 2010. He was a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and in 2016 he was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists' Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small Market. He currently lives in Bulgaria with his wife Wendy and daughters Lydia and Elena.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937226848
Publisher:	Torrey House Press
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	275
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

JONATHAN THOMPSON is a native Westerner with deep roots in southwestern Colorado. He has been an environmental journalist focusing on the American West since he signed on as reporter and photographer at the Silverton Standard&the Miner newspaper in 1996. He has worked and written for High Country News for over a decade, serving as editor–in–chief from 2007 to 2010. He was a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and in 2016 he was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists' Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small Market. He currently lives in Bulgaria with his wife Wendy and daughters Lydia and Elena.

Table of Contents

PART I

HEADWATERS

1. Blowout
2. Holy Land
3. Awful in their Sublimity
4. Dandelion Brew
5. Olaf and the Gold King
6. Perfect Poison
7. Slime Wars
8. Hard Rains Gonna Fall
9. Blackest Week
10. Slime Wars II
11. Strike
12. Radiate as Directed

PART II

FOSSILS

13. Moving Mountain
14. A Pumpjack is not a Coalmine
15. Hot Spots
16. This can’t be the United States

PART III

WE'RE ALL DOWNSTREAMERS

17. Sunnyside
18. Men with Boots
19. Fishy
20. Mine Pool
21. Superfund
22. Water is Life

Index

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2018
On August 5, 2015 a wall of toxic wastewater from the Gold King Mine near Silverton, CO, spewed into a tributary of the Animas River. Within hours the sludge turned the river water an opaque, orange color; tainting the entire watershed and other rivers, miles downstream. In this book, debut author Thompson, a native Coloradoan, uses this incident as a focal point to survey the history of human-caused pollution in the Four Corners area of Colorado and New Mexico. Thompson's work is more than a historical survey of industry's oftentimes deleterious environmental effects in Colorado. He also shows the tight interconnectedness that is created between these extractive industries and the various communities that become economically reliant on them, creating a for-better-for-worse type of symbiotic relationship. His writing meanders through Western history, family stories, and pollution-causing activities to create a vivid and, at times, horrifying time line that shows the aftereffects of human exploitation of nature. VERDICT Aficionados of Western history, environmentalists, and even general readers will enjoy this cautionary tale that takes an intimate look at the side effects of human industry.—Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Library Journal

12/18/2017
Mixing reportage, historical inquiry, and personal narrative, environmental journalist Thompson uses the Gold King Mine disaster as the starting point of an investigation into the environmental history of Colorado’s Animas River Valley, stretching back to the beginning of European colonization. In 2015, three million gallons of bright-orange, heavy-metal-tainted water spewed out in a matter of minutes from the defunct Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo. Though the immediate danger of the toxins passed relatively quickly, it irreparably altered the relationships that the local Diné (Navajo) had with their land. “Our history is a history of pollution,” Thompson writes, detailing the damages caused by even the most primitive forms of mining in a seemingly endless war between mining companies and the humans and wildlife that depend on the water systems near mining sites. Thompson, a southwestern Colorado native, knowledgeably and sensitively addresses ethical questions at the heart of his inquiry, including what it would mean to restore the water system to its precolonial state. He also effortlessly explains the technical elements of this story, such as the complex chemistry of the environmental effects of mining. This is a vivid historical account of the Animas region, and Thompson shines in giving a sense of what it means to love a place that’s been designated a “sacrifice zone.” (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

​​"Part elegy (the Animas River watershed is still compromised by the spill), part ode (Thompson grew up playing in the Animas while staying at his grandparents’ farm in the fertile valley), and part investigative journalism (he examines unsparingly how extractive industries past and present befoul rivers by setting up practice near precious water sources)."

—OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

"Thompson's investigative chops are impressive. But the book is most evocative when the author negotiates the strange eddies of his personal connections to this landscape."

—SIERRA MAGAZINE

"Thompson's debut work tells the tale of the Four Corners, its history, its people and their interaction with the land—all from the perspective of a fourth–generation Durango resident."

—THE DURANGO HERALD

"Thompson weaves his skills of investigative journalism and factual verification with the empowering tools and devices of a novelist to bring the reader directly into his new book."

—THE UTAH REVIEW

"An important book of investigative journalism, especially relevant for those living in the Mountain West."

—ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

"Thompson, a southwestern Colorado native, knowledgeably and sensitively addresses ethical questions at the heart of his inquiry, including what it would mean to restore the water system to its precolonial state. He effortlessly explains the technical elements of this story, such as the complex chemistry of the environmental effects of mining. This is a vivid historical account of the Animas region, and Thompson shines in giving a sense of what it means to love a place that’s been designated a 'sacrifice zone.'" ​

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"An elegy of sorts for a beloved natural area with a long history of human exploitation."

—FOREWORD REVIEWS

"The reader will revel in the beauty of the Colorado landscape while recoiling from descriptions of cruelty towards the Native Americans and the horrors of acid mine drainage."

—BOOKLIST

"Thompson's writing meanders through Western history, family stories, and pollution–causing activities to create a vivid and, at times, horrifying time line that shows the aftereffects of human exploitation of nature… Aficionados of Western history, environmentalists, and even general readers will enjoy this cautionary tale that takes an intimate look at the side effects of human industry."

—LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Thompson documents the sacrifice of the entire area with unusual detail, vibrancy, and no small amount of passion, and with a keen eye for the effects on people and other living things. Highly recommended."

—CHOICE

"By turns mournful, optimistic, angry and hilarious, Thompson offers fresh takes on everything from a mountain town's bare knuckle politics to a young man's loss of innocence to what it truly means to be a Westerner. Deeply researched, thoroughly unsentimental, this is a moving and rip–roaringly told tale."

—STEVE FRIEDMAN, author of Lost on Treasure Island

“Jonathan Thompson’s River of Lost Souls is a rich historical and personal account of the San Juan Basin, a region blessed and cursed by its geology. From the hard rock mining era of the late 1800s to the recent natural gas drilling boom, some things never change: the extractive industries fight common sense rules to their own—and the public’s—detriment. This book is a must read for every person who loves the West and needs to understand how we got to where we are today.”

—GWEN LACHELT, La Plata County Commissioner and founder of the Western Leaders Network

“Equal parts The Quiet Crisis and Silent Spring, and 100% scary, timely, and so very important. Every citizen in every western mining community MUST read this book, as should every politician at every level of government.”

—ANDY NETTELL, proprietor of Back of Beyond Books

“To know the west, Jonathan Thompson’s River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster is a must read. On par with Lavendar’s One Man’s West, Thompson describes the history of settlement in the beautiful Animas River valley nestled in the rugged San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado. Thompson, a 5th generation Animas Valley local, and a master craftsman of the written word, makes this book a privilege to read.”

—PETER SCHERTZ, co-owner of Maria’s Bookshop

From the Publisher