CO Governor Drinks Water from Toxic Sludge Spill Site

It will take many years and many millions of dollars simply to manage and not even remove the toxic wastewater from an abandoned mine that unleashed a 100-mile-long torrent of heavy metals into Western rivers and has likely reached Lake Powell, experts said.

In a release from the New Mexico Environment Department, state engineer Tom Blaine pulled no punches, saying, “Despite the fact that EPA did not notify New Mexico directly and took no action to alert New Mexicans to the potential danger, we took steps to ensure the protection of our water users in the area”.

Gold King is one of a cluster of old mines that have been sending pollution downhill from tunnels dug 11,000 feet high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. The shipment is expected to arrive Friday.

“Navajo Nation stand strong”, Ms. Brockovich said on Facebook. Crews are hauling water from 30 miles away to top off water tanks so customers aren’t cut off. The potent stew of heavy metals accumulates as chemical reactions brew up sulfuric acid at concentrations high enough to dissolve steel, and leach poisons down mountainsides and into groundwater decades after mines close.

Rust-colored water continues to gush from Colorado mine. Federal officials appeared pretty ho-hum about the situation, failing to react quickly and slowly notifying downstream communities of the approaching wave of contaminated water.

City gardeners and irrigators are also still waiting for water. The update reiterated that they do not expect adverse effects for people, livestock or crops but still recommend recreational users carry their own drinking water.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said there will be a full internal and external investigation.

The Environmental Protection Agency had pushed for 25 years to grant Superfund status to the partly collapsed Gold King mine and other idled mine sites leaking heavy metals above Silverton, Colorado.

This item has been corrected to show that the EPA will give $500,000 to help supply clean water, not $50,000. The day before, she toured the Animas River, which connects with the San Juan, in Durango, Colorado. The report notes that wastes can include arsenic, asbestos, cadmium, copper, cyanide, iron, lead, mercury and sulfur, among other material, and produce airborne pollutants. EPA officials said they were seeking details on what the stop-work order means.

The president of the Navajo Nation is advising tribal members not to submit claims for federal reimbursement for the Colorado mine spill. “This was an interesting incident in that it occurred up river, it passed through like a train, and it moved on”. Begaye says Navajo elders also might not know what they’re signing.

The EPA’s response to the disaster has been criticised by local environmentalists. The agency says the form must be submitted within two years of the discovery of the claim, Begaye said, but learning the extent of the damage could take much longer.

Gov. Martinez said Thursday the New Mexico Environment Department is doing its own tests on the water to make sure the feds are telling the truth about what’s in it.

Environmental authorities have admitted the scale of an acidic wastewater spill into a Colorado river is three times larger than initial estimates.

It should be noted that the Governor didn’t drink the river water until after an iodine tablet used to kill off possible Giardia and E. coli viruses was added to the sample. “That’s why they have water treatment plants”, he said.

This is why environmental regulators downstream are intent on determining where the contamination settles.

Yes, the EPA is culpable for the consequences of the river closure in the past week, and the damage the river closure has caused.

However, the head of the EPA wouldn’t go into specifics because she says the results are preliminary.