DENVER (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says the mine waste spill into Colorado waters is much larger than originally estimated.
But an EPA official said Sunday that she doesn’t believe wildlife will suffer significant health impacts from the wastewater from an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado.
The agency said the amount of heavy-metal laced water that leaked from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River, turning the water a mucky orange and then yellow, is three times larger than its initial estimate.
The EPA now says 3 million gallons of wastewater spilled Wednesday and Thursday, instead of 1 million. The revision came after the EPA used a stream gauge from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The agency has so far been unable to determine whether humans or aquatic life face health risks. However, EPA toxicologist Deborah McKean said the sludge moved so quickly after the spill that it would not have “caused significant health effects” to animals that consumed the water.
The discolored water from the spill stretched more than 100 miles from where it originated near Colorado’s historic mining town of Silverton into the New Mexico municipalities of Farmington, Aztec and Kirtland.
The leading edge of the plume was headed toward Utah and Montezuma Creek near the town of Bluff, a tourist destination. The town, which is populated by a few hundred people, is surrounded by scenic sandstone bluffs.
Local officials were preparing to shut down two wells that serve Montezuma Creek, said Rex Kontz, deputy general manager for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.
To keep water flowing to homes, the residential tank in Halchita has been filled with clean water hauled 40 miles from Arizona.
Back in Colorado where the spill started, the EPA planned to meet with residents of Durango, downstream from the mine. The EPA water tests near Durango are still being analyzed.
The EPA has not said how long cleanup efforts will take. An EPA-supervised crew trying to enter the mine to pump out and treat the water caused the spill
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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Salt Lake City.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
So, will we be sending a bill for the spill to those who profited from this “abandoned” mine?
And yeah, extra heavy metals in your drinking water might not kill the animals or the people, but how many IQ points will it knock off the children in the area? How much will it shorten life expectancy or the quality of life in their old age after a lifetime of accumulation?
My question is why was the waste pond allow to stay there and not be processed and filled in?
Here is the reason this mine was never remediated as part of a Superfund Site. Colorado didn’t want it remediated because it would bring attention to the lingering poisons all over Colorado and negatively impact the tourist industry. In that way, Colorado and Durango have created this tragedy, because of their greed. The government and EPA wanted to designate some 10,000 mines in CO as Superfund Sites years ago and begin remediation of them. Log onto Durango Herald for current news. You can be sure the EPA will minimize the poison impacts. But more importantly, you must know that the governor, probably Hickenlooper, denied the remediation proposition by the EPA years ago and has maintained these mine poisons do not threaten the landscape, wildlife and humans. We will be getting lies about this from every corner at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Durango City Council and county trustees have avoided the publicity for years about the looming catastrophes up in the mountains above them, for monetary / tourist reasons.
Yes the usual. Those criminals never pay their way in this country. The criminals are protected by congress from culpability to allow mining to make as much profit as possible, with no responsibility for their evil environmental impacts. But, this is the case with all industy in Amerika anymore: destroy the environment to make a $billion by raping our Great Mother and walking away with her treasures free from overhead costs, and leave the poison behind to destroy lives and environment. This is how the country works - irresponsibly and criminally everywhere that industry / energy industry most obviously, is destroying everything for a fast buck. That is exactly what Capitalism is all about: greed and arrogance, laziness and destruction. Look at the mess the Kochs have made near Cleveland with their massive coal garbage piles, for just one of a million examples.
Simple: Out of sight - out to mind. Oh and it costs money to fix the problem.