Three river-running experts from the United States plan to take on a task more difficult – and disgusting – than Hercules’ cleaning of the Augean stables. They plan to raft down the Santiago River from its source at Lake Chapala all the way to the estuary near San Blas where it pours into the Pacific Ocean, a distance of 562 kilometers.
During what they expect to be a three-week journey, they will take video footage for a documentary that will compete in several of the world’s environmental film festivals, in a bold bid to accomplish what no one else has managed to do: the “healing” as they call it, of what was once one of Mexico’s most beautiful rivers.
The man behind the project is Sam Morrison who has run more than 3000 river miles on 70 different rivers and streams. He says: “We’d like to get people interested and involved in this problem. We hope the film will get them fired up – and maybe a little bit angry – so they will put pressure on local politicians to enforce the laws that already exist.”
Morrison, who hails from Grand Junction, Colorado, teaches sixth-grade Environmental Science at the American School in Guadalajara. He says the idea for this daring project came to him three years ago when he first arrived here.
“I took a hike down the Barranca de Huentitán and to tell you the truth, I was simply blown away by beauty and the scale of that canyon. It reminded me of the canyons of the Colorado River and the Green River, where I grew up. As soon as I spotted the Santiago, down below me, I felt I wanted to kayak down it – the river looked so beautiful from up above! And then I got down to the riverside and discovered how smelly and polluted it was.”
The awful state of the river was dramatically brought home to Tapatios in January of 2008 when eight-year-old Miguel Angel López fell into the Santiago River near his home in El Salto. The boy immediately entered a 24-hour cycle of severe vomiting, hallucinations and diarrhea, and then went into a coma. He was diagnosed as suffering from septicemia (a severe systemic infection) and a worsening infection of the brain. The child died after 18 days and eventually the State Medical Arbitration Committee determined that Miguel Angel had died of arsenic poisoning. The State Water Commission admitted that there are at least 80 sites where untreated sewage and industrial wastes, including arsenic, lead and mercury, are dumped into the Rio Santiago in its first 100 kilometers. Nevertheless, Jalisco’s Secretariat of Health has repeatedly claimed that the river’s water is normal with the exception of high levels of harmless manganese, aluminum and iron, which they say pose no cancer risks.
In 2012, Greenpeace activists marked World Water Day by rowing into the sudsy Santiago near the El Salto/Juanacatlan waterfall to leave placards drawing attention to the fact that toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, chromium and lead continue to be dumped into the putrid-smelling, foam-covered river. Three decades ago the waterfall was known as “Mexico’s Niagara,” but today people run from it in horror.
The disastrous results of the industrial effluents and raw wastewater pouring into the Santiago are detailed in a publication entitled “Report on Violations to the Right to Health and to a Safe Environment in Juanacatlán and El Salto, Jalisco, Mexico.” You can download it as a PDF, in English, from eBookily.com.
When told about Sam Morrison’s plan to raft the entire length of the river, Jalisco’s veteran whitewater expert Chris Lloyd said, “I hope he and his crew will be using hazmat suits for the most polluted parts of the river—if not, I hope they have their wills all in good order.”
Morrison commented, “Not long ago I did a short stretch on the river in a kayak and, yes, not getting splashed was a concern.” He hopes to minimize the danger of contamination by using rafts instead of kayaks, allowing his crew to ride higher in the water. “If we come to rapids, where we could get splashed, we may run the rafts through on a line and we will definitely bring along respirators for certain sections. I think we can run it safely enough to avoid too much risk.”
Three project members plan to raft down the entire length of the Santiago: Sam Morrison, his brother Tom, and friend Chris Garcia. They will be joined in parts of the river by videographer John McKinley and guests who wish to have a taste of a most unusual and probably unforgettable experience. Says Morrison, “We’ll have two rafts with us the entire way because we want to give others a chance to join us.”
The members of Heal the Santiago are presently trying to raise funds to finance their rafting and film-making project. At the time of this writing, they have raised $3492 of the 9000 dollars they need. If you would like to make a contribution or just learn more about their project, Google “Heal the Rio Santiago.” You’ll know you’re on the right page when you read the words, “This will be disgusting …”