"In 2015, a flood of thick yellow sludge from a long-abandoned mine in Silverton, Colorado, made headlines as it flowed down the Animas River towards the Navajo Nation and the mighty Colorado River. Perhaps the most charismatic environmental disaster of our time, the Gold King Mine spill illustrates the devastating potential waiting in hundreds of abandoned mines throughout the Rocky Mountains. With disarming storytelling, award-winning journalist Jonathan P. Thompson unearths a litany of impacts wrought by a century and a half of mining, energy development, and fracking in southwestern Colorado. Amid these harsh realities, Thompson explores how a new generation is setting out to make amends"--Back cover.