EPA likely to pay big price for toxic spill

Water is now not received from the San Juan River or Lake Powell. He hopes the river will be open for recreation in the next few days.

By law, the agency has to pay people who suffer personal injury or property damage as a result of governmental actions, and there’s likely to be a number of those claims. That would have brought in major funds for a comprehensive cleanup. Wildlife leaders showed him cages set up in the river so he could see how the pollution is affecting fish and other animals. EPA officials said they were seeking details on what the stop-work order means.

Members of the tribal council were frustrated during a special meeting Monday and echoed the sentiment of New Mexico officials that the federal government needs to be held accountable.

The agency accidentally unleashed the contaminated wastewater last week as federal and contract workers inspected the abandoned mine near Silverton, Colorado.

One week after the spill, the EPA said runoff had returned to its normal levels of about 213 gallons per minute.

EPA won’t face fines for causing the Gold King mine wastewater disaster. So far, there have been no reported cases of anyone’s health being harmed by the spilled heavy metals, she said. The ponds brimmed with yellow-tinted runoff outside the old mine, located 11,300 feet high in the Rocky Mountains. In some areas, the EPA is supplying water for livestock.

Communities in northwestern New Mexico and on the Navajo Reservation have made plans to access other sources of water, but Balderas said his office is among those pressuring federal officials to get better data and release it in a timely manner. He said more testing is needed.

The troubling thing about circumstances surrounding the Gold King Mine, and the dumping of orange, iron-laden waste into the Animas River, is that the mine, out of commission since 1923, was in the environmental-mitigation process.

That announcement could signal an end to a dispute between the agency and Colorado, which wants to reopen the river to boating and fishing, key parts of the area’s tourism economy. Water-quality tests haven’t detected acidity that’s usually associated with mine sludge.

“The majority of the district’s water is collected from the Virgin River at the Quail Creek Diversion and transported via pipeline to the county’s two largest off-stream reservoirs: Quail Creek and Sand Hollow”, officials said in the release.

The pollutants included heavy metals like lead and mercury. Dropping now, and most of the Orange color is gone, but the water is still not safe.

But for the Navajo, there are other impacts that can not be quantified, Yazzie said.

“This new water coming in was the avenue to creating new development and creating long-term sustainability”, Kontz said.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Begaye explained that the Navajo are well known for their organic crops and meat, but now with the river contamination, farmers and ranchers are scared they can’t guarantee their consumers that their produce and products are going to be 100 percent organic. She lives on the Animus and her family depends on a well for water which is now unusable.

New Mexico Environment Department engineers, technicians and… In response to the “unfortunate accident”, McCarthy said the EPA has developed and “deployed the full depth and breadth of the agency, as well as partners on the ground”.

“It’s probably perfectly fine”. Farmers have stopped irrigating and communities have closed water intake systems. “It would have to be incredibly toxic to kill them immediately”, he said. Contributors include Michael Biesecker in Washington, Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City, Colleen Slevin in Denver, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana.