Wastewater from an abandoned gold mine continues to drain into a Colorado river, causing it to turn to a mustard-yellow hue.
Advertisement
In a statement Saturday, the federal agency said it is providing technical and laboratory assistance.
The agency said it hoped to have a thorough lab analysis of the contaminants, which include lead and arsenic, as soon as Saturday night.
“We misjudged. And this is something that I’m owning up to”, McGrath said. “We know the importance to people to have this information.” Crews were building containment ponds to catch and treat the water.
“[A]s a result, the message to my colleague Ron Curry was delayed, it was a day delayed, and we do apologize for that”, said McGrath. “As we have storm surges, as we have flooding events, that sediment can and likely will get kicked back up into the water”. We’re trying to figure out what is going on and how to fix it. This is a vexing problem…. The mine has been inactive since 1923. From there, the orange water plugged steadily along through the small stretch of winding river in southern Colorado and across the state border to New Mexico where the Animas meets the San Juan River. The plume has been visually diluted and the leading edge of it is far less defined. Until then, it is not known what the orange, acidic mess might mean for water users and the river’s ecosystem.
In meetings with frustrated residents, EPA officials at a community meeting in La Plata County on Friday apologized for causing the spill and for initially playing down its scope. “There’s a lot of questions that our constituents have, and so many communities have as well, that we need to get rapid responses to”, said U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján. “But in person, it truly looks like the river was turned into carrot juice”.
New Mexico Environment Department spokeswoman Allison Scott-Majure said testing has not yet been performed in San Juan County.
Farmington officials have shut all intake pumps to protect the city’s water supply, so drinking water will not be affected by the breach.
No health hazards have been reported since the spill, but concerned groups are taking extra precaution, just to be sure. There are also reports that the contaminated water is heading towards Utah.
“They are impacting the livelihood of our people”, he said.
Downstream, though, the Animas flows through the scenic town of Durango and is a magnet for summer vacationers, fishermen and rafters. Aerial photos showed the slow-moving yellow water snaking by scenic mountain roads surrounded by pine trees.
The spilled water also contained cadmium, aluminum, copper, and calcium, but the concentrations were not yet known.
Some residents along the river who rely on wells for drinking water have told the EPA that their water is discolored.
At least two of the heavy metals can be lethal for humans in long-term exposure.
Advertisement
The company said that the EPA was operating under an access agreement and that when the agency was removing backfill from the portal to the mine, a “plug blew out releasing contaminated water behind the backfill into the Animas River“.
