Wastewater From Colorado Mine Reaches New Mexico

The plume, unleashed on Wednesday August 5 by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers assessing an entrance of the Gold King Mine in Silverado, Colorado, was flowing at one to two miles per hour, according to the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management.

No drinking-water contamination was reported.

More than seven water facilities shut their water intake valves down, in time to keep the water out of their systems. “But things didn’t go quite the way they planned and there was a lot more water in there then they thought, and it just kind of burst out of the mine”.

Oops. The party responsible for the spill is… the EPA!

“People don’t realize this is the water supply for Las Vegas and Los Angeles and San Diego as well as irrigation water for much of the southwest”, he said. It was too soon to draw any conclusions, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski said.

“The Animas is not even close to us”, he said. It wasn’t clear when that will happen. EPA toxicologists have suggested that anyone who comes into contact with the contaminated river water rinse themselves off with clean water, Hestmark said.

New Mexico officials are angry the EPA did not inform them soon enough about the pollution floating downstream.

At last report, the contamination reached the Colorado and New Mexico state line.

Friday, EPA regional administrator Shaun McGrath called his agency’s initial response “not appropriate”. “We still don’t know how bad it is”. And the EPA has been trying to designate the mines a Superfund site for years, only to come up against local resistance. The crew was making an attempt to enter the mine as a part of a challenge to pump and deal with the water, EPA spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool stated.

The mine has been inactive since 1923. EPA and New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) are providing assistance to community water systems and closely monitoring the situation. Passengers on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad snap thousands of photos of the waterway as the steam-powered trains chug up the narrow canyon beside it.

“It’s such a shame. While this reference information is relevant to skin exposure, the evaluation of impacts of these pH levels on fish and other aquatic life is ongoing”.

San Juan County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter declared a state of emergency on Friday night.

DENVER – An eerie yellow sludge that poured out of a shuttered gold mine and into a southwestern Colorado river was inching its way downstream toward New Mexico and Utah.

EPA officials say there will be long term impacts because of sediment that is settling along the Animas. The area is popular for tubing and other recreational activities.