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EPA downplays dangers of mine spill, but concerns linger

To date, at least 3 million gallons of contaminated waste water from the abandoned Gold King Mine have spilled into Cement Creek and the Animas River in southwestern Colorado.

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“I’m not sure you really want to know what I think of the EPA”, Keith Dempsey said as he manned a booth at the market. “What that means is yet to be seen”.

“There is no direct precedent for the toxic Animas River spill in Colorado and past regulatory actions from agencies”, explains author Sam Batkins, “but we can learn from previous benefit-cost estimates”. The EPA’s initial response has been predictably slow and unsatisfying.

The investigation will seek to determine the specific cause of the spill, and all details surrounding how Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials ended up allowing such a large amount of waste to flow out of the abandoned Gold King Mine into the waterways below. The chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources said joint congressional hearings on the spill could start in mid-to-late September.

Michael Davis, a public information officer at the Gold King Mine spill office, rejected the allegation, calling it farfetched to say workers charged with protecting the environment would purposely harm it.

“This is the story that was related to us just now”, Begaye said.

“The representative of Gold King mine is making unsubstantiated, baseless and irresponsible allegations”, Kinross said in response to emailed questions from the Los Angeles Times.

“They’ve been growing sudan grass for my cattle and sheep, which is our livelihood”, Shaggy said.

“Under my administration, you wouldn’t have to sue the EPA, because I would get rid of all the old people and bring in people who understand the Constitution”, Carson said, later clarifying that he wouldn’t actually fire all 17,000 EPA employees. I guess we’re fortunate that the disaster wasn’t created by a private company where clean-up would have lasted for years with heavy fines imposed by the government.

About a week after the spill, the EPA praised the seemingly mystical way the river was “restoring itself” and said the Animas River was back to what it was before they began their work.

Also Wednesday, the Interior Department announced it would lead a review of the Colorado mine spill after all six senators from the affected states of Utah, New Mexico and Colorado sent a letter with more than a dozen pending questions.

Much of the contamination dissipated before reaching the lake, but Hepworth said he suspects some of the heavy metals settled at the mouth of the San Juan River. Validated sampling data for the Animas and San Juan Rivers from the Northern Border of New Mexico to Navajo Nation collected from Aug. 9 to Aug. 10, 2015 has been released.

After more than a week without irrigating his field with the San Juan or using its waters to keep his horses hydrated, Etcitty, his long black hair waving in the evening breeze, pondered the river’s meaning and was overcome.

The highest sample for total lead was 250 parts per billion on August 8 west of Farmington, where the San Juan flows into Navajo lands, the agency said.

“Potential health effects include lung cancer from inhalation of radioactive particles, as well as bone cancer and impaired kidney function from exposure to radionuclides in drinking water”, writes the EPA.

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Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) royally screwed over everyone that uses the Animas River.

River in Colorado reopens as toxic plume reaches Lake Powell