EPA chief to visit areas affected by mine waste water spill

It looked Photoshopped, but it was definitely real: A river in Colorado flowed orange.

The breach last week at the Gold King Mine near Silverton sent a flood of yellow, metal-laden water coursing into the Animas and San Juan rivers.

We write to request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establish and publicly disclose its plan for the near-term cleanup and mitigation of the Gold King Mine release.

McGrath says more data are needed to know whether the river is back to baseline conditions. 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.

Officials of EPA said there are metals of zinc, iron, and copper in the spill which is flowing into the Animas from the creeks.

“The decision about EPA contractors has not been made”, an agency spokeswoman told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

However, experts say a long-term concern is the deposit of heavy metals from the spill that have settled into sediments, where they can be churned up and unleash a new wave of pollution when storms hit or rivers run at flood stage.

“Decades. That is totally, completely unsettling”, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told the Associated Press.

They’ve since become legacies of the industry’s boom-bust cycles, in which companies fold up operations when metals prices fall, leaving behind sources of toxic wastewater that chronically leave rivers barren and taint drinking water supplies.

The Bureau of Reclamation says the reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border holds about 4.2 trillion gallons of water, dwarfing the spill.

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.

Meantime the EPA is taking full responsibility for this environmental disaster and working closely with all parties involved.

Also in Durango on Wednesday will be Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and the attorneys general from New Mexico and Durango.

The plume is now working its way toward the San Juan River’s confluence with the Colorado River in Utah.

“Tourists with rafting trip reservations have opted for Jeep touring or other activities in the area”, she said.

Still, as a precautionary measure, the agency said stretches of the rivers would be closed for drinking water, recreation and other uses at least through 17 August.

But environmental regulators in downstream New Mexico warned that it was crucial to determine where the contamination settles.

Governor Susana Martinez declares a state of emergency due to the 3 million gallon waste spill in the Animas River.

The Gold King Mine has been out of use since 1923, and is one of thousands of abandoned mine sites across the country.

The important thing, she said, “is ensuring the health and safety of the residents” and she emphasized the EPA is committed to helping residents in the region. Dropping now, and most of the Orange color is gone, but the water is still not safe.

“Being very close to the Earth, the water represents the woman spirit, the lifeblood of the Earth”, Yazzie said.

In a public meeting at the Farmington Civic Center Tuesday evening, Dennis McQuillan, a hydrologist with the state Environment Department, shared news about private domestic water wells, stating the department has tested about 40 wells located about 500 feet from the Animas River valley.