EPA chief: Agency did not shirk responsibility in mine spill

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed complaints Wednesday by Republican lawmakers that her agency downplayed the seriousness of a toxic mine spill that fouled rivers in three Western states.

Witnesses testifying at the hearing included Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator at the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response with the EPA; Dennis Greaney, president of the Environmental Restoration LLCT; Donald Benn, executive director of the Navajo National Environmental Protection Agency; Dean Bookie, the mayor of Durango, Colorado; and Mark Williamson, a geochemist at Geochemical Solutions LLC. The agency’s contractor was at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo., to evaluate and treat mine water that was already leaking when “the pressurized water discharged from the mine into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River”, McCarthy said.

At that hearing and a second one in the afternoon the EPA’s McCarthy clashed repeatedly with lawmakers.

This was a tragic and unfortunate incident. “The same standards that the EPA applies to private companies should also apply to the EPA itself”.

The new documents include EPA’s regional “interim use” sampling plans (these are termed “interim” because they may be updated based on changing sampling priorities); contract documents related to the Agency’s work at both the Gold King Mine and the Red and Bonita Mine; and documents related to landowner consent for EPA access to the Gold King Mine site. The Interior Department is independently evaluating the factors and has not yet released the data.

Right now there are two reviews being conducted by the federal government: one technical review by the Interior Department and another on criminal liability by the EPA’s inspector general.

Despite the EPA’s cleanup and investigation initiatives, Sen. Dan Sullivan from Alaska.

“Although the EPA admitted responsibility there is no denying that they caused this spill and that’s entirely unacceptable”, said Bennet. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. She said the EPA is working to “aggressively get people to safety, aggressively stop the spill and make sure it doesn’t happen again”.

“We need a revenue stream to put programs in place to work on the worst of these sites”, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who long has been skeptical of the idea.

“That’s just wrong”, Begaye says.

“Whether the EPA knew it was likely that water was impounded behind the Gold King Mine portal and a blowout was possible…”

The EPA was duplicating its efforts at Gold King in at least ten other mines, in four states.

“The mines in (the Colorado, Utah and New Mexico) area leak more than 330 million gallons of acid mine drainage into the Animas River each year”, Boxer said. Some of the mines were abandoned decades ago and have grown more unstable over time, raising the risk of an accident.

Not a Colorado-exclusive issue, spillage is caused by polluted, abandoned mines across the country, Boxer said.

Also exempted were portions of the 10 stopped projects where construction already was completed, such as treatment systems for contaminated water that pours continually from many abandoned mine shafts.