Years, $$s, to Eradicate EPA Spill

The safest solution would be to install a treatment plant that would clean the water from Gold King and three other nearby mines.

The EPA determined in March 2013 the century-old mine was discharging approximately 300 gallons per minute of acidic water containing high concentrations of aluminum, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and zinc, the records state.

“Whatever was inside the mine after years of looking for gold, whatever chemicals they left behind, that’s all in our water now”, he said. “My hope is this has embarrassed the hell out of them and they’re going to finally take it seriously”.

“Disbelief, just utter devastation, a little bit of incomprehension when I first saw the pictures last Thursday”, mine owner Todd Hennis said. However, the city isn’t yet tapping the river, which supplements its water supply.

“The spiritual connection we have with the land and the water …”

The agency installed a concrete bulkhead at the Red & Bonita Mine, located upstream of the Gold King Mine, because of the threat the mine posed to human health and the environment, according to federal records.

Begaye said his tribe is bearing the brunt of the massive spill that was accidentally unleashed by EPA workers inspecting the long-idled mine above Silverton, Colorado, on August 5.

Taking Colorado’s discharge seriously “doesn’t lessen the impact and importance of cleaning up our area”, Mr. Hughes said.

McCarthy acknowledged the concerns of state, local and tribal officials about the heavy metals now trapped in the river bed and along the banks, and promised to deal with the sediment problem over the long term, but offered no specifics. Now the state Department of Public Health and Environment has a map to answer that question.

The spill led two Colorado municipalities, including Durango, and the New Mexico towns of Aztec and Farmington, to shut off their river intakes. The EPA has built pools to collect the runoff before leaks into tributaries of the Animas, and is treating the water as it emerges. In preliminary statements about contamination and cleanup, the EPA estimated it could take decades to rid the river and its sediments of toxins.

“If I smoke every day of my life, I may only live to 50 or 60 vs. 70 years”, he said. He has worked on EPA-funded projects and said the agency’s results must stand up in court, so it takes multiple test samples over time, and then subjects the results to more reviews.

But there are other ways to consider the same data: Hydrologists usually measure by the acre-foot and acre-inch, and say 3 million gallons could cover 110 acres with an inch of contaminant-laden toxic sludge. Meanwhile, the notorious pit grows in infamy: In 1995, an entire flock of migrating snow geese perished after setting down in the water.

Current Colorado law requires a mining company to post a bond to cover the eventual cost of cleanup before a permit is issued to start operations, but Gold King was abandoned in 1923, before the law was in effect. Nonprofit groups and other so-called Good Samaritans that might try such work on their own are hobbled by federal laws that render them liable for whatever pollution comes out.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, on a visit Wednesday to Durango, downstream of the spill site, said she had ordered agency personnel across the country to cease field investigation work on abandoned mines while the spill was investigated.

“We have roughly 73 million gallons of untreated water in reserve”, Rays said.

Russell Begaye stared at the yellow water that keeps pouring out of a hole in the side of a Colorado mountain, racing down a slope and dumping heavy metals into rivers critical to survival on the nation’s largest Native American reservation and across the Southwest.

Rep. Ben Lujan, D-N.M., who joined McCarthy at a press conference Thursday, said he will be part of an effort in the Congress to address the long-term implications of the crisis.