What happened

Off of US highway 34 in Loveland Colorado, American Civil Contractors spilled tons of toxic chemicals into the Big Thompson after the massive flood in 2013. Rainbow trout, brown trout, and suckers all died in an 8 mile stretch of the Big Thompson. It killed 6,000 fish and American Civil Contractors agreed to pay $207,000 for fish restoration.

More times Colorado Rivers have been affected by humans

The Animas river was affected in 2015 after millions of gallons of toxic waste and chemicals spilled into the Animas River. Restoration is still in progress but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is paying to fix it. The spill killed thousands and thousands of fish and no one saw it coming.

What we need

We need 4 million dollars to clean up all Colorado Rivers that have been affected by spills and seal up the leftover mines so that no more waste can spill into another Colorado river.

How we will do it

First, we will block off all old mine shafts and mines so another spill doesn't happen like in the Animas. Than, we will put filters on the water and than skim off the chemicals off of the top. For the Animas River though, there was dense metals that fell to the bottom of the river so we will have a dam that blocks off the water so we can pick up the dense metals than skim it after we let the water flow than remove the dam so it is a temporary zone to fix the problem. The money will also be spent on restocking fish in the area and creating new habitat.

Tie back to mining and 1800's

In 1872, Ulysses S. Grant created the 1872 mining law which is currently still in affect. Thousands of old mines release polluting materials onto the ground. The newly formed hard rock mining and reclamation act of 2015 will create royalists for clean up efforts. By sealing up all current mines, we can prevent more spills in the future.