Contaminated Water from Mine Spill Still Not Detected in Utah

The yellow plume of toxins stretches 100 miles.

The San Juan River and its northern tributary, the Animas River, have been fouled by the release of more than 3 million gallons (11.3 million liters) of acid mine drainage inadvertently triggered by a team of Environmental Protection Agency workers last Wednesday.

So how did it happen?

While the incident has opened the EPA to criticism – especially by those who say the agency waited too long to publicize the spill – others note that the area near Silverton, where the breach occurred, has many abandoned mines that hold toxic water.

The heavy-metals-laden contaminants turned the Animas River a shade of mustard fit for a Crayola crayon box.

Ironically, actual iron, copper and zinc began to pour out after a plug holding it all in was released.

Russell Begaye stared into a hole in the side of a Colorado mountain, watching as yellow water contaminated with heavy metals poured out and raced down a slope toward a creek that feeds rivers critical to survival on the nation’s largest Native American reservation and in other parts of the Southwest.

The spill from the mine flowed down Cement Creek and into the scenic Animas River, which is popular with boaters and anglers.

“These millions of gallons of toxic sludge … threaten the integrity of Arizonans’ limited drinking water resources, but also surrounding farmland and ecosystems, including the world-renowned Grand Canyon”, wrote Rep. Matt Salmon (R., Ariz.) in a Tuesday letter to McCarthy.

All Animas River activities are now suspended until the river reopens, said Carly Holbrook, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Tourism Office. “Just as important, we expect her to listen to local officials and residents in the area who still don’t have answers to when their water will be safe to drink, irrigate their crops and water their livestock”.

He couldn’t? The EPA allows only minuscule amounts of these same metals in the air and water because it thinks they are so harmful.

For now, only time will tell. The agency is testing water at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mining companies don’t like to invest in Superfund sites because they’re heavily scrutinized and more costly to develop, said Ernest Kuhlman, a San Juan County commissioner and Silverton’s former mayor. The contaminates eventually found their way to New Mexico, and the state declared a state of emergency. “It was hard to wake up in the morning and see an orange river”, said 52-year-old Tom Bartles.

By Monday afternoon, some photos from the Animas River seemed to show some dissipation, aided by the EPA’s introduction of clean water upstream and the use of large holding pools to contain the toxic water. “EPA’s core mission is to ensure a clean environment and to protect public health, so it pains me to no end to see this is happening”.

Soon after the spill was detected, city officials stopped pumping water from the Animas into the reservoir that provides drinking water for Durango’s 17,000 residents – taking action swiftly enough that the contamination did not reach the drinking supply.

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.

EPA crews were cleaning up an old mine at the time of the mistake.