Farmington officials have shut their intake valves to protect drinking water and are urging residents to do the same. Officials downstream blasted the agency for not initially taking the spill more seriously. The biggest problem now is public health and safety.
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Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement, in part, on the spill.
The EPA has taken full responsibility for the disaster. “Needless to say, the health of our community and recreation-based economy depends heavily on water quality”. Authorities have warned people to avoid all contact with the water and recommended recreational users to stay out of the river for the time being.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife placed 108 fingerling rainbow trout in three baskets on Thursday to monitor the effects.
The exact environmental impacts aren’t known and there will likely be long-term impacts with how much metal is in the water.
Few particulars have been launched concerning the spill, besides that a cleanup crew by chance breached a containment construction.
The EPA administration is going to investigate why EPA staff and contractors allowed the water to be released, McGrath said. It wasn’t clear when that will happen.
The water that continues to flow out of the mine is being treated in a settling pond to reduce, not eliminate, the metals and acid in the water before it flows into the river.
The spill occurred Wednesday, in what appears to be an embarrassing mishap from the Environmental Protection Agency. But New Mexico officials were angry they were not told of the spill until Thursday, almost a day after the accident. New Mexico Environment Department Cabinet Secretary Ryan Flynn identified the mine as a federal Superfund site.
Friday, EPA regional administrator Shaun McGrath called his agency’s initial response “not appropriate”. This toxic water spilled out of an abandoned mine in Southern Colorado on Wednesday, which is what is making the water orange. The crew was trying to enter the mine to pump out and treat the water, EPA spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool said.
Cleanup has been done at about 9,000 abandoned mines but the status of some 14,000 remains uncertain, said Bruce Stover, director of Colorado’s inactive mine reclamation program.
This raised the acidity of Cement Creek to a level (pH 3.74) comparable to black coffee, EPA officials said, and in the Animas below Silverton at a level comparable to orange juice or Dr. Pepper (pH 4.8). Passengers on the Durango and Silverton Slender Gauge Railroad snap hundreds of photographs of the waterway because the steam-powered trains chug up the slender canyon beside it.
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“We are estimating $150,000 in lost revenue this month”, said Alex Mickel, owner of Mild to Wild, the biggest rafting company in Durango. The Animas River flows into the Juan River in New Mexico, which further runs through to Utah, joining the Colorado River in Lake Powell.
