On March 27th, 2018 the United States Environmental Protection Agency forced the State of Nevada to close off all river access to the public after finding high levels of toxic waste in the water.The Colorado River, is over 1400 miles long and spans across five states including Nevada in which section of the River in Laughlin has been shut down.
The section of water being affected is located in an unincorporated town named Laughlin, located in Clark County, NV. The EPA confirmed they have been monitoring the Colorado River since 2002 when the suspicion of toxic waste being leaked from a nearby automotive parts manufacturer arose. Over the years, the EPA stated there were “signs of toxic waste in the water, but at such miniscule amounts that it is not nearly enough to cause harm to civilians or the wildife that relies on the water to survive.” In the past months the EPA reported the levels increasing and are in the process of finding the reasoning behind it.
The Automotive Manufacturer, responsible for supplying OEM parts for Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Fiat Inc, was also forced to shut down operations in aod of the EPA to reasearch the companies waste disposal procedures. The Automotive Manufacturer company denied any knowledge of the toxic levels in the river water increasing and have refused to further comment on the situation until further investigations have been preformed.
The EPA has ordered the Colorado River to remain closed to the public until they can assure to the piblic the toxic waste is diverted elsewhere and can no longer be a harm.
This is a developing story, please scroll down to find any further updates. When asked on the expected closure time, they did not give a guaranteed date but commented that “tourists can expect to see the waters closed for this year, at least during the most popular times of travel. It takes several months to investigate and properly handle toxic waste.”
Based on other situations similar to such as this one, the State of Nevada can expect the river to remain closed down at the least until early November of this year. Laughlin, being a high traffic tourist city will be very affected in revenue sales by the river closure.
When asked about the closure, Town Manager Brian Paulson assured “This will definitely hurt the economic side of the city, but our primary concern is and always will be the health and safety of the people. As a city, we are in good enough of a position to pull through the situation.”