The spill 3-million-gallon spill sent heavy metal-laden toxic wastewater flowing into Utah and at least two other states.
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“No one will know what the long-term effects are going to be”, the Republican congressman said in an interview after his Monday visit. Although EPA officials from the areas affected by the Animas River Spill spoke to the press in a week following the disaster, little information was provided regarding environmental impact assessments or mitigation plans.
Some water was still pouring out of the hole, which the EPA had diverted toward various pools for treatment. Congressional investigators are looking into why the EPA didn’t do more to find out how much toxic water was inside Gold King before using heavy machinery to open it. The agency needs to answer that question publicly and tighten its procedures accordingly. After the EPA spill, governors of those states declared emergencies.
Copper said the inspector general will be requesting documents, conducting interviews with managers and staff members in the locations where the spill took place, but elsewhere if required. However, some state officials said they believe that to be the case.
In the interim, Utah health officials warned river visitors not to drink the water and to minimize contact with dirt and sand.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said testing of surface water collected over a week in Hogback, New Mexico, showed water quality at the same levels as those measured before the mine waste reached the reservation.
The four mining adits of concern in the Gladstone area contribute hundreds of millions of gallons of acid-mine drainage per year to the Animas River Basin, according to the EPA’s onsite coordinator Steven Way.
“I actually asked them, point blank, if they were aware of any evidence that might support the suspicion that people have about purposeful motives and they categorically denied any of that”, he told reporters in a conference call late Wednesday. The order came after a lawsuit by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.
Although the Animas River was recently reopened for recreational activities, the spill caused five New Mexico water systems, including those of Farmington and Aztec, to temporarily stop pumping water from the river, forcing them to rely instead on water storage reserves.
Attorney General Sean Reyes will get a firsthand look Wednesday at the Colorado mine site that spewed millions of gallons of toxic water into southeastern Utah. Mike Lee.
“Although the plume has passed, the sediments are still here and could possibly be transported into the food chain throughout the Animas and San Juan River ecosystems”, Game and Fish Director Alexa Sandoval said. On the lake bottom, in the case of Lake Powell, Reyes said, there’s still a significant amount of lead, arsenic, zinc, mercury and cadmium left behind.
“We all want a better environment”.
“It disrupted and halted recreation, swimming, boating, fishing”, Reyes said. The agencies didn’t take action at that time and permitted the local community to work on the problem.
“Who pays the costs for that?”
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Way said the EPA still intends to complete the bulkheading of the Red & Bonita Mine this summer, but whether the valve allowing flow from the mine adit will be closed remains to be decided.
