The City of Durango has declared a state of local emergency.
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“It’s absolutely devastating”, she said.
It sounds like the type of big-mess episode the Environmental Protection Agency has warned about while holding up all sorts of mining, drilling and construction projects throughout the country – usually at great expense to working Americans who need affordable energy and jobs.
The Navajo Nation, which spans New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, also has declared a state of emergency. And the stuff is heavy metal, it’s arsenic, it’s lead, it’s cadmium, at 300 to 3,000 times the normal level. There, it migrated into the San Juan River and wound its way into southeastern Utah.
The EPA has not said how long cleanup efforts will take.
The Animas River has been closed and local officials have advised people to stay out of the water. The agencies are hoping to get a better understanding of the general quality of water throughout the area.
Also, federal and state officials said Sunday that a major potential problem could be the potentially hazardous sediment that sinks to the bottom of the river as the plume passes and that could be kicked up again in flooding or weather events.
“Once that contamination goes into the ground, it’s much harder to clean up”, Blancett said. Residents also brought with them a little anger and frustration. “Right now we’re just canceling by the day”, said Drew Beezley, co-owner of 4 Corners Whitewater in Durango, Colo. One resident questioned whether the agency had refashioned itself into the “Environmental Pollution Agency”.
“I cannot shower, I cannot cook, I cannot do anything with the water from my water well”, New Mexico resident Rosemary Hart said.
The spill happened at the Gold King Mine on Wednesday.
Three million gallons of toxic sludge escaped into the Animas, part of the larger Colorado River system. He says he has no other resources.
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, asking that the agency develop a comprehensive plan for addressing those communities, farms and ranches that are without water. “Already, a lack of water is taking a toll on these individuals and their livelihoods”. Instead of entering the mine and beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.
Colorado has about 23,000 abandoned mines; the United States has an estimated 500,000. “Hazard quotients” is scientific shorthand for a complex equation that defines the point at which a given metal becomes unsafe in drinking water.
The toxic water moved so quickly downstream that it could not be contained, EPA officials said.
The discharge, containing high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead, was continuing to flow at the rate of 500 gallons per minute on Sunday, four days after the spill began at the Gold King Mine, the EPA said.
The mine has been inactive since 1923. And as you can see, it started in the southwestern Colorado gold mine and has now reached New Mexico.
Drinking water is being hauled in to some communities.
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There are hundreds of abandoned mines in the area, and the organization, made up of environmental groups, mine owners, local governments and businesses, has worked out an independent approach to setting and meeting goals for water quality standards.
