Animas River disaster: EPA chief takes responsibility for Colorado waste spill

“We’re just being cautious”, she said.

Environmental scientists tested a key US river on Tuesday for signs of a toxic waste spill from a botched Colorado mine clean-up that prompted a state of emergency in the desert Southwest. It flowed into the San Juan River in Farmington where the rivers come together on Saturday and entered Utah on Monday.

But there was encouraging news Tuesday in Durango when biologists pulled out a cage full of trout from the Animas and found only one dead fish inside.

“You guys don’t call for days anyway”, Hickenlooper said.

He’s been in Durango for 35 years and loves it. He called the city a paradise and, without exaggeration, the greatest place in the world.

From a public health standpoint, the agency recommends that anyone who comes into contact with the Animas River washes with soap and water.

The wastewater contains toxic heavy metals including lead, which can harm fetal development and cause vision impairment and kidney disease, and arsenic, which at high levels could cause paralysis, blindness, and cancer. The Health and Human Services Department has enlisted its U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to assist local officials in coordinating the public health response. Typically, individuals or local governments sue the EPA over the rules it sets for environmental protection, he said.

EPA Region 8 Administrator Shaun McGrath declined to “speculate” on what levels of pollution will remain from heavy-metal laden sediment that fell out of the slow-moving plume as it passed downstream. Technicians are going door-to-door to collect samples for testing, EPA said. “They are part of the decision-making here and we want to keep it that way”, McCarthy told reporters after the event.

Kim Cofman and her daughters Acacia, 12, left, and Cayenne, 14, try to stir up sludge from the Gold King Mine that covers the bottom the Animas River on Saturday, August 8, 2015, in Durango, Colo., near the 32nd Street Bridge but find the only way to disturb it is to dig into the yellow muck.

“And they’re right”, he said.

Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the EPA regarding the Gold King Mine spill. Their initial estimate of 1 million gallons began gushing uncontrollably into the nearest creek before reaching the Animas river. He declared that the water was safe to drink because of this measure taken. Instead, the work “unexpectedly triggered” the blowout, sending tainted water into the Animas River. There, it migrated into the San Juan River and wound its way into southeastern Utah. “We will continue to evaluate the legal issues as we receive data and monitor the effects on our communities”. “It was hard to wake up in the morning and see an orange river”, Bartles said.

Officials are monitoring the water quality.

“Of course this mining incident is of concern for us, but at this point, we don’t have the information we need to say that this is going to last beyond our capacity”, he said.

The reservoir, and preliminary results from tests on the water, appeared to have contained a panic, but the possibility of long-term danger remains. From there the discharge headed toward the Colorado River, which provides water to tens of millions of Westerners. Annoyed tribal council members echoed the sentiment of state officers, insisting that the federal authorities be held accountable. The association’s storage tank holds 300,000 gallons of water, which would last about a day, he said. Water is also available from 9am-9pm at the Bloomfield Fire Station, 911 N. First St.; Farmington Fire Station #6, 3101 West Main St.; Flora Vista Fire Station #1, 2 Road 3275; and the Aztec RV Fill Station, 201 W. Chaco.

“We had lots of trips booked”.

He said he will likely impose water restrictions on Tuesday.

It’s changed the color of the river to a mustard yellow, and so far it’s stretched more than 100 miles, heading toward the Colorado River.