EPA responds to toxic spill in Colorado river

Updates with McCarthy planning visit.

McCarthy pledged a thorough review of the EPA’s role in the disaster, but said her current focus is on properly managing the response.

“We’re trying to be as cautious as we can and prudent”, McCarthy said.

Data released by the agency showed the water had elevated levels of lead, arsenic and magnesium, all harmful to humans and the environment.

Federal officials said all but one of a test batch of fingerling trout deliberately exposed to the water survived over the weekend.

Calculations indicate the pollution has reached Utah, but tests haven’t confirmed it because the water’s chemistry has returned to normal. Authorities expect the contamination to finally settle in Lake Powell, a reservoir on the Colorado River. Drinking water systems in the Navajo Nation, spanning parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, have been forced to shut down water intake systems.

The former geologist says that if there’s a “silver lining” to the disaster, it will be a new relationship between the state and the EPA to solve the problem.

Though officials are still trying to understand the scope of the damage, as many as 550 gallons of water, according to some estimates, continue to gush per minute, turning the Animas River a mustard yellow. “We would hope that they would be cautious and recognize how a river is such a lifeblood to these people down here”.

“We have yet to be presented with a comprehensive plan from the agency to provide water to those whose wells have been affected, farmers whose crops are not being irrigated, ranchers whose livestock are without water, and people for drinking, cooking, and showering”, the letter stated.

Ryan Parker, a water research specialist, takes samples Tuesday from the San Juan River in Montezuma Creek, Utah, to check fo… “As I’ve said before, I am very concerned by EPA’s lack of communication and inability to provide accurate information”.

The contaminated water that flowed into a tributary of the Animas and San Juan rivers contained high levels of arsenic, lead and other potentially toxic heavy metals.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) acknowledged EPA’s admission of responsibility in a Tuesday statement but said that the agency has not been sufficiently cooperative with Congress. He called for congressional hearings to investigate the matter.

Today does marks the first day people affected by the spill can file claims with the EPA.

Wastewater still escaping from the mine site was being diverted into hastily built settling ponds where the effluent is treated before it empties into Cement Creek, sharply reducing its acidity and metal levels, the EPA said.

The agency estimated that more than 3 million gallons of sludge has already flowed at least 100 miles downstream to New Mexico. The worries stem from the farmland that uses river water for irrigation, and the communication barriers that may be keeping some members of the Navajo community uninformed of the contamination.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper spent Tuesday visiting a contaminated stretch of river. Officials are now examining the river to see the effects it will have on the ecosystem due to the variety of contaminants in the mine waste spill.

Hickenlooper said that the state was going to do everything it can to support local businesses that have suffered. This is on top of the $500,000 in state emergency funds that NMED received on Friday.

The wastewater has then washed into the Animas River and into San Jan River in northwestern New Mexico.