EPA Causes Massive Spill of Mining Waste Water in Colorado, Turns Animas River Bright Orange
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency caused a major spill.
The EPA says it was using heavy machinery to investigate pollutants at the Gold King Mine on Wednesday morning when it released an estimated one million gallons of mining waste into a creek. The waste spewed from the creek into the Animas River north of Silverton, Colorado, turning the water orange.
The wastewater released contains heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, and mercury.
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.
"The governor is disturbed by the lack of information provided by the EPA to our environmental agencies in New Mexico and strongly believes that people in our communities downstream deserve to have all the information about this situation,” Chris Sanchez, the governor’s spokesman, said in an emailed statement Thursday. “For example, we were not notified about this release until 9:30 a.m. this morning even though the release is reported to have occurred at approximately 10:40 a.m. yesterday. And the first notification received by the State of New Mexico came from an official with the Southern Ute Tribe, not EPA.”
“Governor Martinez hopes the EPA will be more cooperative and forthcoming moving forward as we work to address this situation and that the EPA will demand the same of itself as it would of a private business responsible for such a spill.”
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