August 18, 2015 11:17 AM UTC

All of Colorado is (NOT) Contaminated

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• by: Colorado Pols

Governor John Hickenlooper juggles a lot of different responsibilities as Colorado’s top elected official — which includes serving as Colorado’s chief tester of gross-looking water, which he did again last week in chugging a bottle of water from the Animas River in the aftermath of the Gold King mine wastewater spill.

Hickenlooper agreed to drink from the river at the request of several people in the Durango area in an effort to assure people that the water was safe — and the big sip made Hick plenty of friends as a result. From the Durango Herald:

Hickenlooper didn’t say whether or not the Animas River was tastier than the glass of fracking fluid he once quaffed, but the move nevertheless generated a bit of controversy. On Monday, Denver Post reporter John Frank Tweeted a link to his Sunday story about the Animas River, asking the question “Is [Hickenlooper’s] big Animas River sip a liability or political win?” Here’s what the Governor had to say regarding his motivation for drinking from the river:

“The point I was trying to make is that the river is back to normal,” Hickenlooper said in an interview after returning from Durango. “There’s a silver lining in all this. It doesn’t appear there is going to be lasting environmental damage or significant environmental damage, and what most of us were fearful of didn’t happen.”

Sunday’s Post story notes some vague disapproval from the likes of state Sen. Ellen Roberts, who offered her usual brand of WTF-flavored commentary, but you’d have to really squint your eyes in order to make out the downside of Hick’s demonstration. By swigging river water, the Governor was making a pointed effort to ease fears and tamper speculation about the extent of the pollution in the Animas River — and to make sure that misinformation didn’t cripple the tourism economy in Southern Colorado.

This may not be as obvious a course of action as it seems. Whatever your opinion on the big river sip, at least Hick didn’t say that all of Colorado was contaminated. Back in the summer of 2002, raging wildfires throughout Colorado became international news…and the media flames were fanned by an asinine comment from then-Gov. Bill Owens. Here’s an excerpt from a Durango Herald story on June 19, 2002 that is much less enthusiastic about the Governor’s response:

The Durango Area Chamber Resort Association is waging an all-out fire-related campaign of its own to remind customers that the train is running, the rafts are floating and Mesa Verde National Park is still open.

Mass e-mails are being sent to welcome centers, chamber groups and media in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Local businesses are being advised of the best way to quell tourists’ fear of fires.

“But our biggest concern is the quality of information on a national scale,” said Mary Hart, director of DACRA’s tourism efforts. “We had one call this morning from a woman in North Carolina who said she heard Durango was being evacuated.”

Hart said national media are being contacted when misinformation is found, but it is an uphill battle. On Tuesday, CNN’s headline was “Colorado is Burning.”

Hart said even within Colorado, questionable statements have been made by high-ranking officials such as Gov. Bill Owens, who has said, “All of Colorado is on fire.” [Pols emphasis]

Yup, Gov. Owens really said that. He stared into news cameras in mid-June and said those exact words: “All of Colorado is on fire.” Fears of spreading fires eventually got so bad that then-Denver Mayor Wellington Webb was forced to hold a press conference to inform the media that the City of Denver was not, in fact, going to burn down (to read more of the national coverage of the 2002 fires, check out this CNN transcript.)

So before you criticize Gov. Hickenlooper for drinking river water, remember Bill Owens. There is a bad way to handle the response to big environmental disasters…last week was not one of those examples.