Federal officials say the concentration of metals in the San Juan River on the Navajo Nation is returning to what it was before the release of toxic sludge from a gold mine.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released new data Friday of surface water and soil samples from nearly a dozen locations on the reservation. The EPA says iron and other metals peaked in the week following the Aug. 5 spill at the Gold King mine but since have declined.
The EPA says off-reservation communities have reopened the San Juan and Animas rivers to recreation, agriculture and livestock watering based on similar data sets.
Navajo President Russell Begaye has cleared the Fruitland Irrigation canal for reopening. Other tribal irrigation systems along the San Juan have not reopened.
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