Critics of carbon regulations using mine spill to skewer EPA

The plume has since dissipated, its heavy metals settling into riverbeds, during the waste’s 300-mile journey toward Lake Powell, where the flow joins the Colorado River that supplies water to the Southwest. But the state deserves credit for its aggressive approach, within the bounds of safety, in determining whether the river could be reopened.

Twice I hiked the Animas Mountain trail, which affords spectacular views of the river’s meanders and oxbows, and of the riverside town of 17,000 below. If ever a river was the lifeblood of a community, it’s the Animas flowing through Durango. Not the Animas. How could this be?

Some of the mines date back to the Gold Rush of the 1800s.

And as we’ve learned from the Gold Kind tragedy, we all live downstream. The millions of gallons in the Gold King mine accumulated over time.

The continuing cost of the Eagle River cleanup is being borne privately, by a corporate conglomerate.

But some native fish, like the razorback sucker, are re-populating, and there are fears the recovery could be in danger because of the contaminants.

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

In Durango, the river is closed for business until further notice. “We’re working closely with state and local partners and with tribal nations as our efforts progress”.

In addition to New Mexico, wastewater from the mine was also inching toward Utah.

Health and environmental officials are evaluating the Animas River as it flows its 126-mile course through San Juan and La Plata counties, although they cautioned that it is unknown whether the spill will have any impacts on human health.

Martinez toured the spill by helicopter Friday for the second time in less than a week.

Over the last week, even Democrats representing states affected by the spill have publicly criticized the agency’s response as anemic.

“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.

“The information we have received shows that water quality levels are comparable to those prior to the spill”, Dr. Carl Heckendorf, state veterinarian for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said in a news release.

Meanwhile, it is critical to take action now to prevent other spills from happening.

Robert Robinson, who used to represent the Bureau of Land Management in the stakeholder’s group, said if Silverton had only embraced a Superfund designation 20 years ago, the mines poisoning the Animas would have been cleaned up by now. “It’s time to stop dinking around with the problem and get on with it”. And some mining projects – such as the Pebble Mine – just aren’t worth the risk. But New Mexico officials were angry they were not told of the spill until Thursday, nearly a day after the accident. If the Pebble Mine were built as planned, it would generate an estimated 10 billion tons of mining waste laced with toxics – about 3,000 pounds for every person on Earth – to be contained forever in an area of high seismicity behind earthen dams as tall as the Three Gorges Dam in China.

A good place to start would be to make mining companies pay to mitigate the hazards left from past operations, as well as to strengthen regulations on new mines to avoid the creation of new threats.

But when disaster strikes, who gets the blame?