EPA planned to release a more complete report late Saturday or early Sunday. As Newsweek adds: “But the EPA has not released information about what concentration of metals are present in the water, or how much a threat to human and ecosystem health the wastewater might pose”.
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The agency affirmed that arsenic at high levels can cause blindness, paralysis and cancer, whereas lead poisoning can create muscle and vision problems for adults.
One thing was certain: The effects of the environmental disaster will be felt for months.
The organization said it was using heavy machinery to clean up the site when it knocked loose a plug and sent a flood of orange-tinted water in the Animas River. Ranchers, growers and homeowners rely on the wells, which are bored into alluvial sediments along the glacial-cut river valley.
And La Plata County emergency management director Butch Knowlton was preparing to launch a domestic well-testing operation. “EPA’s downplaying of potential impacts is troubling and raises deeper questions about the thoroughness of its mine-reclamation efforts”.
“Due to current and longstanding water quality impairment associated with heavy metals there are no fish populations in the Cement Creek watershed and populations in the Animas River has historically been impaired for several miles downstream”, the EPA released reads. These are among tens of thousands of old mines across Colorado and the West that have leaked acid wastewater at varying rates for decades into headwaters.
Steve Lewis/AP Stephanie Schuler, right, and Steve McClung, center, of Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and Mike Japhet, left, a retired aquatic biologist working with CP&W, rescue Rainbow trout from the Animas River on Friday. According to the Daily Times on August 8, the EPA assistant regional administrator, Martin Hestmark, said that there is probably a “couple hundred” gallons per minute still finding its way into the river. Companies that run river tours canceled hundreds of reservations during what should be their busiest month. Officials will continue to monitor them for the next few days.
The toxic wastewater was stored behind debris and was described as “unexpected” by an EPA official. It also washed away a small retention area the crew had built.
“Our initial assessment of it was not appropriate in that we did not understand the full extent of what we were looking at”, he told the Durango audience. But McGrath said he would look into anything that could be actionable against personnel.
“We have been in conversations with the town of Silverton… and the state of Colorado about listing this area under superfund”.
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“There is usually wave after wave of people floating past, but today nothing”, said Sairi Dwyer, 32, watching the yellow water roll past. Instead of entering the mine and beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.
