The Durango Pumping Plant, completed in 2011, as part of the Animas-La Plata Water Project, draws an average annual of 57,100 acre-feet from the river, for storage in Lake Nighthorse.

[7] The Animas serves as habitat to resident and migratory bald eagles which arrive in the winter months to take advantage of the ice-free river.

The river is the native home to the mottled sculpin, a bottom-dweller that thrives in clean mountain streams.

[9] In August 2015, the La Plata County Sheriff's Office closed the river to the public after a crew working for the EPA released approximately 3 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas.

During an Oversight Committee on September 15, 2015, it was made public that the EPA was aware of the possible blowout of waste from the mine into the river but chose to work around the problem rather than fix it.

[17] The Animas is a freestone fishery well populated with rainbow, brown, Colorado River cutthroat, and brook trout.

Recreational fishing with artificial lures and flies on the Animas is available year-round due to moderate winter weather.

In late spring, summer and through fall the Animas sees caddisfly and mayfly hatches as well as terrestrials such as grasshoppers.

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Robert Redford and Paul Newman leap to safety into the Animas River, not far from Durango.