page_title: San Juan River (Colorado River tributary)
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: San Juan River (Colorado River tributary) / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Original Caption: Log Boom near Northeast Tip of Lake Powell, Site of Clean - Up Operation Following Massive Oil - Spill Into the San Juan River Dragline Scoops Up Oil - Soaked Debris. A Burst Pipeline of the Texas - New Mexico Pipeline Company Caused the Spill. Men Shown Here Are Mostly from the Company. EPA Supervised the Clean - Up Coast Guard, Army, BLM and Park Service Were Also Involved, 10/1972 U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-3174 Photographer: Hiser, David, 1937- Subjects: Powell Lake (Duchesne county, Utah, United States) lake Environmental Protection Agency Project DOCUMERICA Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/545661 Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001. For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html Access Restrictions: Unrestricted Use Restrictions: Unrestricted DOCUMERICA - David Hiser
context_page_description: The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, providing the chief drainage for the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Originating as snowmelt in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, it flows 383 miles through the deserts of northern New Mexico and southeastern Utah to join the Colorado River at Glen Canyon. The river drains a high, arid region of the Colorado Plateau and along its length it is often the only significant source of fresh water for many miles. The San Juan is also one of the muddiest rivers in North America, carrying an average of 25 million US tons of silt and sediment each year.
  Historically, the San Juan formed the border between the territory of the Navajo in the south and the Ute in the north.
  Although Europeans explored the Four Corners region at least as early as the 1700s, it was not until the gold and silver booms of the 1860s when settlers arrived in large numbers from the eastern United States. After heated conflicts over land, the Native Americans were forced into reservations, where their descendants live today.
context_section_description: In October 1911, heavy monsoon rains generated the largest flood ever recorded on the San Juan River, causing severe damage along the entire length of the river and many of its tributaries. More than 100 bridges and 300 miles (480 km) of railroad track were destroyed in the Colorado part of the river basin alone, completely cutting off transport and communications. Along the Animas River, "virtually all the crops" were destroyed. On the lower river, most of Bluff was inundated and 1,000 acres (400 ha) of farmland was swept away. At Mexican Hat, Utah the Goodridge bridge, whose deck was 39 feet (12 m) above the river, was destroyed, indicating the floodwaters were at least that deep.
  Farmington, which remains the largest city on the San Juan River and in the Four Corners region, was established in 1901 and grew significantly in the 1920s as coal, oil and natural gas were discovered in the area. Uranium was discovered in the Bluff area in the 1940s, and became a major source for the US nuclear program during World War II and afterwards for domestic nuclear plants. As a consequence of the uranium boom, over 500 mining waste disposal sites continue to contaminate the San Juan River and local groundwater. One of the most polluted sites (at the former Shiprock, New Mexico mill) exhibits considerable leakage into the river. Oil spills have also contaminated the San Juan River at times; one of the largest occurred in October 1972 when over 4.5 million gallons (1 million liters) of oil leaked into the San Juan River from a broken pipeline.
  The gold and silver industry began to decline in the 1950s, leaving behind hundreds of abandoned mines that have contributed to acid mine drainage problems. Rail traffic along the San Juan River declined with the closure of mines, although it was revived briefly in the 1960s by a temporary rise in oil production. When Navajo Dam was built along the upper San Juan River it flooded the towns of Rosa and Arboles as well as a large portion of the D&RGW San Juan Line through the river canyon. The federal government paid for the cost of relocating the line, which began operating in August 1962; however, this section along the San Juan River was abandoned barely five years later due to falling traffic. (The section of the San Juan Line east of Chama has been preserved as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, and the section from Durango to Silverton as the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.)
  In 2015, one of the worst environmental disasters in Colorado and New Mexico's history occurred when the Gold King Mine near Silverton experienced a massive wastewater spill. The accident occurred when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to drain contaminated water that had built up at the entrance of the mine. More than 3 million gallons (11,400 m³) of highly acidic waste spilled into the Animas and San Juan Rivers, turning the water a bright yellow-orange color. The spill temporarily threatened irrigation and domestic water supply as far downstream as the Navajo Nation, and contaminated sediment with heavy metals including lead and zinc. The EPA asserted it would take "full responsibility" for the spill.
caption: Crews clean up an oil spill on the San Juan River, 1972
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