Additional EPA personnel arrived in New Mexico later in the day on August 7.
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Heavy metals, for example, can be deadly for humans and animals that have been exposed in long-term situations.
Ducks wade in the Animas River as orange sludge from a mine spill upstream flows past Berg Park in Farmington on Saturday. As the murky water traveled 50 miles from Silverton, it tumbled over rocks that kept it stirred.
“It’s really, really ugly”, Butch Knowlton, La Plata County’s director of emergency preparedness, told The Durango Herald. It was released by workers operating heavy equipment Wednesday near the entrance of the Gold King Mine in southwest Colorado.
EPA officials took responsibility for what happened, saying they were sorry for the “huge tragedy”. On Wednesday, a breach in a dam holding polluted water from a mine near Silverton, Colo., released at least 1 million gallons of contaminated water.
What’s been the effect on fish and aquatic life so far?
EPA officials don’t know how much toxic water is left.
The EPA accidentally caused wastewater to spill into the Animas River, which flows into the San Juan River and the Colorado River. However, there is no estimate as to when exactly the wastewater will completely disappear. The plan was to excavate the loose material that had collapsed into the cave entry back to the timbering.
“The orange color is alarming to people, but that is not an indication in any way of a health risk,”Joan Card, an official with Region 8 of the EPA, said, according to the New York Times, adding that authorities are testing the river. We are anticipating another possible big release”, EPA spokeswoman Libby Faulk said”. Officials report the waste flowed down a creek that is in the mining town and empties into the Animas River.
The spill was expected to reach the Navajo Nation by the end of Saturday. He had the signs created Friday night using leftover campaign signs from his election in November.
Officials say that the water won’t reach the Rio Grande even though part of the Rio Grande’s water comes from the San Juan tributaries. The plume of muck got into Cement Creek, and then the Animas River.
“New Mexico deserves higher”, state Surroundings Secretary Ryan Flynn stated.
The river remains closed.
Water moves more quickly through boulders and gravel than it does dirt, clay, sand and fine silts, Knowlton said.
Residents that are hooked up to municipal water lines are safe to drink contamination free water.
“We are anxious about those”.
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Water users downstream have been warned by Federal and Colorado health officials to avoid activities in the water until the contaminated water passes by. “I want to assure you that the EPA absolutely is concerned”.
