DENVER — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper once drank fracking fluid to prove a point, so guzzling water from the EPA-contaminated Animas River was apparently no big deal.

The governor, an ex-geologist turned brew-pub owner, took several swigs of water from the previously bright-orange river during his Tuesday visit after the Durango Herald asked if he would do so.

“Am I willing to go out there and demonstrate that we’re back to normal?” Mr. Hickenlooper said after the question was broached. “Certainly. I’m happy to do that. I’m dead serious.”

On the advice of Colorado’s chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Wolk, the Democratic governor first added an iodine tablet to his water bottle to kill giardia and E.coli germs.

“If that shows that Durango is open for business, I’m happy to help,” Mr. Hickenlooper told the Herald, which videotaped the event.

Afterward, the governor, who stressed that no one should drink river water anywhere without adding iodine, announced that the Animas is “perfectly fine for rafting.”

EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said during her Wednesday tour that water samples tested by agency scientists show that the river is back to its “pre-event conditions.” The EPA accidentally uncorked 3 million gallons of acidic toxic sludge on Aug. 5 during a reclamation project at the Gold King Mine.

The spill, which moved downriver to New Mexico, is expected to reach Lake Powell in Utah, but a Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the Bureau isn’t concerned about how the spill will affect the water quality there.

Justyn Liff said the wastewater spill is smaller than five Olympic-sized swimming pools, while Lake Powell can fill 6.4 million such pools.

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