Office of Natural Resources Trustee Celebrates Completion of First Restoration Project Funded with Gold King Mine Settlement Dollars

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Natural Resources Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins cuts the ribbon at the Cedar Hill Boat Ramp completion event.

On June 6, 2023, the New Mexico Office of Natural Resources Trustee (ONRT) and San Juan County officials celebrated the completion of the new Cedar Hill Boat Ramp, the first project to be completed using funding from the State’s Gold King Mine settlements, at a ribbon cutting event.

The Cedar Hill Boat Ramp project is one of four projects funded with a portion of the $1 million recovered from Sunnyside Gold Corporation, Kinross Gold Corporation, and Kinross Gold U.S.A., Inc. for injuries to natural resources in New Mexico resulting from the August 2015 Gold King Mine blowout.

The opening of the boat ramp compensates for the in-river recreational losses caused by the GKM blowout by benefiting boaters, anglers, and other river-based activities and the local businesses that serve them.  The ramp and adjacent facilities provide new access to the Animas River along a currently underserved 38.7-mile reach between Durango, CO and Aztec, NM.

Please see the press release and the Gold King Mine page for more information.

Local rafting guide company launches into the Animas River at the ONRT-funded Cedar Hill Boat Ramp. June 6, 2023.