An EPA contractor ruptured a containment wall at an abandoned gold mine in Colorado, releasing millions of gallons of toxic sludge into the Animas River. Among other things, the contractors working for the EPA were trying to improve site access, stabilize the mine structure and control water and metals. No royalties, no environmental provisions, no ability to fund cleanups after inevitable disasters happen, you get the idea.
Advertisement
In the wake of the Gold King Mine spill, EPA officials have been supplying Navajo Nation farmers and livestock herders with water so they don’t have to use river water, which could contain toxic mine waste. Methinks it’s time to change course when a law signed by Ulysses S. Grant still gives away our natural resources to mining corporations, foreign and domestic.
It was not clear what, if any, additional precautions were taken to prepare for such a release.
The EPA said it would provide an alternate water source from within the reservation but didn’t directly address questions regarding the holding tanks.
The EPA has said the contamination is returning to pre-spill levels as the plume passes.
EPA officials released the documents at 10:30 p.m. ET Friday after multiple news agencies spent weeks pushing them to release the reports. Among the unanswered questions is why it took the agency almost a day to inform local officials in downstream communities that rely on the rivers for drinking water.
The Science, Space and Technology Committee has asked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy to testify on September 9 about the spill.
A House committee has scheduled the first congressional hearing on this month’s toxic waste spill in Colorado.
Despite repeated requests from The Associated Press, the EPA has not released further information on the pre-spill contamination levels in the Animas and San Juan rivers, which would shed light on how much things have changed. Among the items blacked out is the line in a 2013 safety plan for the Gold King job that specifies whether workers were required to have phones that could work at the remote site, which is more than 11,000 feet up a mountain.
On its website, contractor Environmental Restoration posted a brief statement last week confirming its employees were present at the mine when the spill occurred.
The EPA has not yet provided a copy of its contact with the firm.
The spill’s aftermath has cost the EPA $3.7 million through Thursday, according to the agency. Instead of beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside the mine as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.
Advertisement
“As the agency entrusted by the American people to protect the environment and ensure the nation’s waters are clean, the EPA should be held to the highest standard”, he said. For example, the Denver Post reported that the Republican governors of Colorado and Utah – clearly on an EPA witch hunt – alleged that the EPA has withheld information about the mine. That work is ongoing and no timeline has been provided for its completion.
