River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster - Paperback

by Jonathan P. Thompson (Author)

"An important book of investigative journalism, especially relevant for those living in the Mountain West."

--ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

What was really behind the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster in southwestern Colorado? When the river that his ancestors had settled next to in the 1870s turned orange with mining-related pollution in 2015, Jonathan P. Thompson knew he would write a book about it. Thompson, an award-winning investigative environmental journalist, digs into the science, politics, and greed behind the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster, and 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.

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Author Biography

JONATHAN THOMPSON is a native Westerner with deep roots in southwestern Colorado. He has been an environmental journalist focusing on the American West since he signed on as reporter and photographer at the Silverton Standard & the Miner newspaper in 1996. He has worked and written for High Country News for over a decade, serving as editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2010. He was a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and in 2016 he was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists' Outstanding Beat Reporting, Small Market. He currently lives in Bulgaria with his wife Wendy and daughters Lydia and Elena.