As a result, they had no way to immediately communicate with the outside world when the orange-colored water loaded with heavy metals, including lead and arsenic, began rushing toward downstream communities.
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“These samples have consistently shown that the quality of the water in Cement Creek and the Animas River is, and has been for years, impacted by the mine waste coming from the legacy mines”, Dr. Wolk said. State and tribal officials have been furious with the EPA’s slow response and lack of transparency in agency spill operations. He accused McCarthy of telling the media about the spill before informing the affected people. The agency initially said the amount was, I believe, 1 million gallons and several days later said the surge consisted of 3 million gallons. “The Animas River really is the lifeblood of Durango”. “That is exactly what EPA is doing”, Ms. McCarthy told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
“There’s no way EPA should have downplayed this”.
Answered McCarthy: “I do deny that we were going around trying to get anybody to sign these forms”.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye testified later Thursday that the EPA mishandled the cleanup, causing the spill, and mismanaged the response.
“It is really disheartening to stand alongside a farmer, his wife saying that we used to sing to our crops”, Begaye said.
But Flynn said the EPA’s warning about the pollution came belatedly, and it was followed by incomplete testing data presented in a way that minimized the presence of contaminants above drinking-water standards.
This Summer, Congressman Gary Palmer (R-AL6), joined twelve other members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee in signing a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy calling claims she made during testimony before the Committee in July about the impact of the EPA’s regulatory agenda “false and misleading”. “Has anything happened to the EPA employees who are responsible for this?”
“We have long-term obligations here”, McCarthy told the Senate panel.
“I’m not suggesting this wasn’t a disaster”.
McCarthy disputed comments by Republican Sens.
“Although the EPA admitted responsibility there is no denying that they caused this spill and that’s entirely unacceptable”, said Bennet.
They have the potential for contaminated water to build up inside mine workings, EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus said.
The next speaker gave McCarthy one last rebuttal, in which she asserted the forms in no way constituted a final agreement.
“This committee asked for information from the EPA nearly a month ago and we have yet to receive all the documents that were requested”, Smith said.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have announced a variety of bills to respond to the spill, including a measure sponsored by Democratic Sens. It seems that funding is a much bigger problem here, and placing blame regarding the Gold King incident is overshadowing that conversation, as some senators pointed out.
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DENVER (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency is considering building a wastewater treatment plant for an inactive Colorado gold mine after the agency inadvertently triggered a 3-million-gallon spill of polluted water there last month. Four sites are in Colorado, three in California, two in Montana and one in Missouri.
