Colorado Plateau Environmental News: EPA Breached Gold King Mine Dam; Toxic Spill Into Animas River
My 3rd-Year Law School Seminar Course at University of Colorado Boulder focused on this river and other rivers of the Colorado Plateau . . .
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How the EPA managed to spill 3 million gallons of mining waste into a Colorado river
Updated by Brad Plumer on August 10, 2015, 12:30 p.m. ET @bradplumer brad@vox.com
Over a million gallons of mine wastewater have made their way into the Animas River, closing the river and putting the city of Durango on alert.
Back in June, the Environmental Protection Agency had begun work to plug the abandoned Red and Bonita mine near Silverton, Colorado, that had been draining toxic heavy metals into the Animas River for years.
Then everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
On August 4, EPA workers were clearing out the nearby Gold King mine, closed since 1923, when they breached a debris dam that had been holding back a massive amount of water laced with arsenic, lead, and other toxins.
All that contaminated water gushed out, unstoppably, coursing down the mountains and turning the Animas River a sickening shade of yellow:
Over a million gallons of mine wastewater has made it's way into the Animas River, closing the river and putting the city of Durango on alert. (Brent Lewis/The Denver Post/Getty Images)
At first, the EPA said that about 1 million gallons of wastewater had been released. Then, on an August 9 press call, officials said they'd taken fresh measurements and actually 3 million gallons had spilled out - about five Olympic-size swimming pools' worth.
Officials have warned people in the region to avoid contact with the river as the contaminated water surges through. The EPA is also warning people with wells in nearby floodplains to have their water tested before drinking or bathing. Both the nearby city of Durango and La Plata County in Colorado have declared states of emergencies, as has the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management.
This whole disaster raises a couple of big questions: Why was the EPA messing around with abandoned mines in this area? And how did the agency manage to trigger such a massive spill? To understand this story, we have to walk back through the legacy of mining in Colorado, which is still creating grisly environmental problems to this day.
Colorado has hundreds of old mines still leaking toxins
Starting in the 1870s, miners have rushed to the Silverton region to seek out gold, silver, and other valuable resources. But as Stephanie Ogburn at KUNC and Jonathan Thompson at High Country News recount in excellent pieces, that mining boom left behind a serious mess.
There were two major environmental problems associated with mining. First, up until the 1930s or so, miners often just dumped their tailings - waste material that frequently contained toxic heavy metals - into nearby streams and rivers. Around Silverton, heavy metals accumulated in the riverbeds of the Upper Animas River, and their effects lingered for decades. For many years, fish couldn't survive in these waters.
Second, as miners dug and blasted shafts, they'd typically hit groundwater, which would begin flowing through fractures in the rock. As that water mixed with air and sulfides, it would react to form sulfuric acid. That acidic wash, in turn, dissolved and picked up various heavy metals in the ground - like zinc, arsenic, lead, and copper. These toxic streams of water are known as "acid mine drainage," and they're still a problem to this day, flowing out of mines and into nearby streams.
The last mine near Silverton closed in 1991. But there are still more than 400 abandoned mines in the region, and many continue to fill up with toxin-laced water that then leaches out into rivers and streams. And cleaning up these old mines has been a gruesome challenge for decades.
The state has struggled to clean up these old mines - and EPA recently stepped in
Water flows into pits of mine wastewater below the Gold King Mine on August 7, 2015 along Animas River. (Photo By Brent Lewis/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
That brings us to the Red and Bonita and Gold King mines that the EPA was working on. These, too, have a tangled history.
In 1991, Sunnyside Gold Corp. closed its last big mine in the region, American Tunnel. After long negotiations with the state, Sunnyside began cleanup efforts and eventually plugged American Tunnel in three places to prevent further acid mine drainage.
Unfortunately, the water in the mines then backed up, and in 2006, acid drainage began leaking out of the nearby Red and Bonita mines, which had long been abandoned. The company that had taken ownership of these mines in the meantime, Gold King, soon ran into financial difficulties and could no longer treat the water that was pouring into the Upper Animas River. After a brief period when fish had returned to the river, it was poisoned yet again.
Now enter the EPA. Ever since the 1980s, the agency has wanted to declare parts of the Silverton region a Superfund site, which would trigger federal funds for intensive cleanup efforts. But local residents have long resisted this move, out of concern that the bad publicity would drive away tourists.
So instead, the EPA has been taking a more piecemeal approach - working with the state and the Animas River Stakeholder Group to clean up mines in the region bit by bit. That meant removing waste from both the Red and Bonita and nearby Gold King mines, diverting water that was entering those mines, and eventually plugging their openings with concrete bulkheads. The cost? Some $1.5 million.
It's worth noting that even this cleanup measure was always considered highly uncertain. EPA workers didn't know if the acid mine discharge would eventually back out and flow somewhere else. "This, in a way, is as much as experiment as the American Tunnel," Steve Fearn, co-coordinator of the Animas River Stakeholders Group, told the Durango Herald in June.
The cleanup efforts went horribly awry in August
Residents sit on the edge of the river while awaiting a glimpse of the mine wastewater.
The EPA began cleanup work in late June 2015. On August 4, workers were clearing out the partially collapsed Gold King mine when they breached a debris dam that had been holding back toxic water, filled with contaminants. That water flowed out, and the Animas River was suddenly flooded yet again by a gusher of heavy metals.
Some notes here: First, the river was hardly pristine before this incident, and it's unclear how much additional damage this blowout has actually caused. Testing by the EPA has revealed that the heavy metal contaminants became more diluted by the time the water reached the town of Durango, and early tests downstream with fish cages have revealed that the water isn't killing them all. Still, it's a worrisome situation, and the agency is scrambling to monitor things closely.
Meanwhile, this is hardly the first disastrous blowout from an old mine. Jonathan Thompson of High Country News offers some context: "In June of 1975, a huge tailings pile on the banks of the Animas River northeast of Silverton was breached, dumping tens of thousands of gallons of water, along with 50,000 tons of heavy-metal-loaded tailings into the Animas. For 100 miles downstream, the river 'looked like aluminum paint,' according to a Durango Herald reporter at the time; fish placed in a cage in the water in Durango all died within 24 hours."
Still, what's eye-catching here is that this time the EPA is at fault - not a mining company. Even though the agency was trying to clean up a toxic mess that has been simmering for decades, even though efforts to stem the flow of polluted mining water have often gone awry, even though these particular cleanup efforts were basically expected to go awry, there's an undeniable irony in the whole situation.
"It’s hard being on the other side of this, in terms of being the one who caused this incident," David Ostrander, the EPA’s head of emergency management, told a crowd in Durango, according to the Guardian. "We usually respond to emergencies, we don’t cause them," he said.
The agency is currently facing criticism for failing to notify other agencies quickly enough after the spill occurred - including the state of New Mexico, where the polluted water is heading. Indeed, if a company had acted in a similar fashion, the EPA might have potentially levied fines or other penalties.
In the meantime, the polluted water is coursing down the river, eventually joining up with other waterways and making its way into New Mexico, with the long-term effects still unknown.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9126853/epa-mine-spill-animas
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EPA Says It Released 3 Million Gallons Of Contaminated Water Into River
AUGUST 10, 2015 8:42 AM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
Contaminated wastewater is seen at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in San Juan County, Colo., in this picture released by the Environmental Protection Agency. The photo was taken Wednesday; the plume of contaminated water has continued to work its way downstream.
In an event that has led to health warnings and turned a river orange, the Environmental Protection Agency says one of its safety teams accidentally released contaminated water from a mine into the Animas River in southwest Colorado.
The spill, which sent heavy metals, arsenic and other contaminants into a waterway that flows into the San Juan National Forest, occurred Wednesday. The EPA initially said 1 million gallons of wastewater had been released, but that figure has risen sharply.
From member station KUNC, Stephanie Paige Ogburn reports for our Newscast unit:
"The EPA now estimates 3 million gallons of wastewater spilled from the mine into the Animas River. They also confirmed lead concentrations had spiked over 3,500 times historic levels just above the town of Durango.
"Debra McKean, a toxicologist with the agency, says levels peak and then decrease as the contamination flows downriver.
" 'Yes, those numbers are high and they are scary because they seem so high,' she said, 'especially compared to the baseline numbers.'
"New test results show significant increases in arsenic levels, and some mercury has been detected. Durango and La Plata County have declared a state of emergency."
Officials are warning residents, farmers and outdoor enthusiasts to avoid the water. The spill occurred at Cement Creek, releasing contaminants that will eventually make their way downstream toward New Mexico and Utah, in a river system that links to the Colorado River and Arizona.
Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: Contaminants Reach New Mexico
The National Park Service says that the plume of wastewater has now reached the San Juan River in New Mexico, NPR's Howard Berkes reports.
Howard adds that the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has issued a statement saying, "Most river sediments will settle out of the water when the river current slows at Lake Powell."
GCNRA spokeswoman Cynthia Sequanna tells Howard that in the slackwater of the lake, "We expect most sediments will drop out in the 40-mile section of the San Juan River that is part of Lake Powell."
The Colorado River also runs through Lake Powell in that same section.
Our original post continues:
After waiting a day to reveal the incident, the EPA has been criticized by those who say it didn't announce the accident soon enough. EPA officials say it took time to realize the magnitude of the spill.
The EPA team had been working on the Gold King Mine near Silverton, an area that has many disused mines.
KUNC reports, "Scientists say it's the largest untreated mine drainage in the state, and problematic concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum are choking off the Upper Animas River's ecosystem."
The station also explains how the mines became sources of contaminated water:
"For most of the West's history, miners were basically allowed to run willy-nilly across the landscape, burrowing for gold, silver or other valuable minerals. According to Ronald Cohen, an environmental engineer at the Colorado School of Mines, whenever you dig into a mountain, 'at some point you are going to hit water.'
"That water, when it runs through the rocks in a mine, hits a mineral called pyrite, or iron sulfide. It reacts with air and pyrite to form sulfuric acid and dissolved iron. That acid then continues through the mine, dissolving other heavy metals, like copper and lead. Eventually, you end up with water that's got high levels of a lot of undesirable materials in it."
Reporting on how the breach occurred, Colorado Public Radio says that an EPA team used heavy equipment to dig into a dam at the Gold King Mine site, hoping to install a drain pipe. But because of the volume of water and the dam's makeup of soil and not rock, it spewed zinc, iron and contaminants into a runoff channel that leads to the nearby creek.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/10/431223703/epa-says-it-released-3-million-gallons-of-contaminated-water-into-river
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Begaye to sue Gold King Mine and EPA
by Donovan Quintero, August 9, 2015
A dam breach that released a million gallons of wastewater into the Animas River on Aug. 5 colors the river orange as it merges with the San Juan River, right, on Saturday in Farmington. Navajo Nation tribal officials have been visiting community members living along the San Juan River to inform them to not use or swim in the river’s water until further notice. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
SHIPROCK
As Navajo Nation police and tribal officials went up and down the San Juan River shore Saturday warning community members of contaminated water from the Gold King Mine, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye was making plans for a clean-up as well as possible lawsuits against the mine and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says the tribe is going to sue Gold King Mine and the EPA during a community meeting at the Shiprock Chapter House Saturday evening in Shiprock. “”Looks like we are going to be suing somebody because this is going to come down to Navajo Nation water. I did a directive, we are gonna sue the mine and also EPA,” Begaye said. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
“We are going to be suing for millions- billions of dollars,” Begaye said.
Begaye and Navajo Vice President Jonathan Nez met with between 150 and 200 community members about 5:30 p.m. Saturday to give them an update on the situation.
Begaye said he learned on Wednesday that one million gallons of mine wastewater had breached a wall at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo. and was heading for the Navajo reservation.
During an Aug. 5 excavation conducted by the EPA at the mine site, loose material gave way, spilling the contaminated water into Cement Creek, which feeds into the Animas River.
At that point. Begaye held a meeting with the NNEPA, Navajo Department of Transportation, NTUA and others to plan a strategy as they waited for the contaminated water to hit Upper Fruitland late Saturday morning.
He had two priorities: warning the Navajos in the area and making plans about what to do when the contaminated water finally reached the area.
Begay’s message gave three precautions for community members:
Prevent their livestock from drinking from the San Juan River.
Avoid diverting water from the river.
Do not enter the river.
He urged ranchers and farmers at the meeting Saturday to be especially careful of their livestock and their children and make sure they took steps to make everyone safe.
“We are going to make EPA pay for this,” he said, adding that he was going to work with NNEPA officials to do tests to see how serious the contamination was to Navajo lands.
He said he didn’t trust the EPA to do the tests because he felt the EPA would not tell them the truth and would try to get the tribe to settle for “pennies” instead of the millions or billions of dollars of damage that was done by the contaminated water.
As of Saturday, no one knew for certain just how serious the contamination was.
Photos of the water just south of the mine showed the river to be a dark mustard color but by the time it was getting to the reservation, it had obviously been diluted in part because of the decision to release more water from the Navajo Dam.
Begaye urged farmers and ranchers to make note of any damage the contaminated water did to their crops and their livestock so that the tribe could ask for damages for them as well.
One thing that is also uncertain is when and how long a clean up will take.
Begaye said he wanted it started as soon as possible, adding that one EPA official said the cleanup could take decades, a remark that got a visible reaction from the people in the audience.
Earl Yazzie, a farmer from Shiprock, reacts when Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says the EPA said it could take decades to clean up the contamination they caused to the Animas River and San Juan River during a community meeting at the Shiprock Chapter House in Shiprock, N.M. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
Earl Yazzie, a farmer from Shiprock, said reports of the contamination was a “big blow to us.”
“This is stressing me out,” he added. “This is just not me but a lot of people are impacted who have farms to take care of.”
He added that water to the area has been off since Thursday.
Duane “Chili” Yazzie, president of the Shiprock Chapter as well as a farmer himself, said his biggest concern was how long before the water is turned back on.
“In two or three weeks, farming families are going to be hurting,” he said. “It’s their livelihood.”
Begaye said the areas that will affected will be affected stretch from the Upper Fruitland area to Lake Powell.” He said some 500 families live along that stretch of the San Juan River.
But this will also affect Navajo communities, such as Red Mesa, to the south and possibly even the Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline which is currently under construction.
A map put on a chalkboard at the Shiprock Chapter House indicates that the contaminated water will reach Lake Powell at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12.
A command center has been set at the Shiprock Chapter House. The number is there is 505-368-1037 or 928-871-7891.
http://navajotimes.com/reznews/begaye-to-sue-gold-king-mine-and-epa/#.Vck9CPmqqkp
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Gold mine's toxic plume extends to Utah
Staff, The (Farmington, N.M.) Daily Times 11:35 p.m. EDT August 10, 2015
On the scene at the abandoned gold mine in Silverton, Colo., at the source of the spill that has turned the Animas River orange. Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
FARMINGTON, N.M. - The plume of heavy metals released last week into the Animas River from the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo., reached Utah on Monday.
As of Monday evening, officials said the plume of contamination was southeast of Montezuma Creek, Utah, and was headed for Lake Powell. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the pollutants in the plume include arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium, but have not released any detailed information on the spill that started Wednesday morning and has since been contained.
The Gold King Mine's discharge raises the possibility of long-term damage from the toxic metals falling out of suspension as the plume slowly moves along the river.
"Sediment does settle," said Shaun McGrath, administrator of EPA's Region 8. "It settles down to the bottom of the riverbed."
EPA officials announced Monday afternoon that public access to the Animas and San Juan rivers would continue to be closed until at least Aug. 17.
One rural water user association in San Juan County, where New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency Monday, has spent thousands of dollars buying water from Farmington and Aztec because it had to shut down its wells after the toxic mine waste spilled into the Animas last week.
"We don't want to take a chance of contaminating them - and it sure has cost us a lot of money," said Rick Mitchell, Flora Vista Mutual Domestic Water Association general manager.
Mustard-colored water began rushing out of the Gold King Mine in southern Colorado on Wednesday after an EPA team disturbed a dam of loose rock lodged in the mine.
The deluge of polluted water poured into Cement Creek and continued into the Animas River. The plume of pollution, clearly visible from the air and estimated to be more than 80 miles long at one point, reached Farmington, N.M., on Saturday morning.
McGrath said future runoff from storms will kick that toxic sediment back into the water, which means there will need to be long-term monitoring.
EPA: Pollution from mine spill much worse than feared
He added that "the Animas River has historically been polluted by acid mine drainage."
Chapters within the Northern Agency have started the process of issuing emergency declarations after toxic mine waste flowed down the San Juan River onto the Navajo Nation.
The San Juan River travels west through the Navajo Nation, then converges with the Colorado River at Lake Powell in southeastern Utah. For the chapter communities near the San Juan River, it is the main source of water for crops and livestock.
So far, the chapters of Upper Fruitland, Nenahnezad, San Juan and Shiprock have issued either declarations or resolutions calling for a state of emergency within their boundaries.
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo.,People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. Jerry McBride, APFullscreen
The "slug" of pollution, which the EPA says contains metals and is about as acidic as black coffee, is headed toward Lake Powell.
Silverton is surrounded by abandoned mines, and the EPA was checking on one of the worst ones, the Gold King, when the breach occurred. Area residents are furious that the federal agency charged with fighting pollution accidentally caused it.
The Animas has largely returned to running clear below Silverton and into Durango, although some of the orange sediment remains in some puddles and along the shore.
EPA pollutes Colo. river during mine cleanup
Officials advise residents with wells in the flood plains of the Animas River and the San Juan River downstream of the confluence of the two rivers to have their water tested before using it for cooking, drinking or bathing.
County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter voiced frustration about the delay in getting information about the chemicals in the water. The data, he said, will "give us a big picture of what we are going to deal with and the long-term effects we will have to deal with."
Contributing: Steve Garrison, Joshua Kellogg and Noel Lyn Smith, The (Farmington, N.M.) Daily Times; and Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/10/navajo-nation-epa-mine-wastewater-spill/31399517/
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How the EPA managed to spill 3 million gallons of mining waste into a Colorado river
Updated by Brad Plumer on August 10, 2015, 12:30 p.m. ET @bradplumer brad@vox.com
Over a million gallons of mine wastewater have made their way into the Animas River, closing the river and putting the city of Durango on alert.
Back in June, the Environmental Protection Agency had begun work to plug the abandoned Red and Bonita mine near Silverton, Colorado, that had been draining toxic heavy metals into the Animas River for years.
Then everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
On August 4, EPA workers were clearing out the nearby Gold King mine, closed since 1923, when they breached a debris dam that had been holding back a massive amount of water laced with arsenic, lead, and other toxins.
All that contaminated water gushed out, unstoppably, coursing down the mountains and turning the Animas River a sickening shade of yellow:
Over a million gallons of mine wastewater has made it's way into the Animas River, closing the river and putting the city of Durango on alert. (Brent Lewis/The Denver Post/Getty Images)
At first, the EPA said that about 1 million gallons of wastewater had been released. Then, on an August 9 press call, officials said they'd taken fresh measurements and actually 3 million gallons had spilled out - about five Olympic-size swimming pools' worth.
Officials have warned people in the region to avoid contact with the river as the contaminated water surges through. The EPA is also warning people with wells in nearby floodplains to have their water tested before drinking or bathing. Both the nearby city of Durango and La Plata County in Colorado have declared states of emergencies, as has the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management.
This whole disaster raises a couple of big questions: Why was the EPA messing around with abandoned mines in this area? And how did the agency manage to trigger such a massive spill? To understand this story, we have to walk back through the legacy of mining in Colorado, which is still creating grisly environmental problems to this day.
Colorado has hundreds of old mines still leaking toxins
Starting in the 1870s, miners have rushed to the Silverton region to seek out gold, silver, and other valuable resources. But as Stephanie Ogburn at KUNC and Jonathan Thompson at High Country News recount in excellent pieces, that mining boom left behind a serious mess.
There were two major environmental problems associated with mining. First, up until the 1930s or so, miners often just dumped their tailings - waste material that frequently contained toxic heavy metals - into nearby streams and rivers. Around Silverton, heavy metals accumulated in the riverbeds of the Upper Animas River, and their effects lingered for decades. For many years, fish couldn't survive in these waters.
Second, as miners dug and blasted shafts, they'd typically hit groundwater, which would begin flowing through fractures in the rock. As that water mixed with air and sulfides, it would react to form sulfuric acid. That acidic wash, in turn, dissolved and picked up various heavy metals in the ground - like zinc, arsenic, lead, and copper. These toxic streams of water are known as "acid mine drainage," and they're still a problem to this day, flowing out of mines and into nearby streams.
The last mine near Silverton closed in 1991. But there are still more than 400 abandoned mines in the region, and many continue to fill up with toxin-laced water that then leaches out into rivers and streams. And cleaning up these old mines has been a gruesome challenge for decades.
The state has struggled to clean up these old mines - and EPA recently stepped in
Water flows into pits of mine wastewater below the Gold King Mine on August 7, 2015 along Animas River. (Photo By Brent Lewis/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
That brings us to the Red and Bonita and Gold King mines that the EPA was working on. These, too, have a tangled history.
In 1991, Sunnyside Gold Corp. closed its last big mine in the region, American Tunnel. After long negotiations with the state, Sunnyside began cleanup efforts and eventually plugged American Tunnel in three places to prevent further acid mine drainage.
Unfortunately, the water in the mines then backed up, and in 2006, acid drainage began leaking out of the nearby Red and Bonita mines, which had long been abandoned. The company that had taken ownership of these mines in the meantime, Gold King, soon ran into financial difficulties and could no longer treat the water that was pouring into the Upper Animas River. After a brief period when fish had returned to the river, it was poisoned yet again.
Now enter the EPA. Ever since the 1980s, the agency has wanted to declare parts of the Silverton region a Superfund site, which would trigger federal funds for intensive cleanup efforts. But local residents have long resisted this move, out of concern that the bad publicity would drive away tourists.
So instead, the EPA has been taking a more piecemeal approach - working with the state and the Animas River Stakeholder Group to clean up mines in the region bit by bit. That meant removing waste from both the Red and Bonita and nearby Gold King mines, diverting water that was entering those mines, and eventually plugging their openings with concrete bulkheads. The cost? Some $1.5 million.
It's worth noting that even this cleanup measure was always considered highly uncertain. EPA workers didn't know if the acid mine discharge would eventually back out and flow somewhere else. "This, in a way, is as much as experiment as the American Tunnel," Steve Fearn, co-coordinator of the Animas River Stakeholders Group, told the Durango Herald in June.
The cleanup efforts went horribly awry in August
Residents sit on the edge of the river while awaiting a glimpse of the mine wastewater.
The EPA began cleanup work in late June 2015. On August 4, workers were clearing out the partially collapsed Gold King mine when they breached a debris dam that had been holding back toxic water, filled with contaminants. That water flowed out, and the Animas River was suddenly flooded yet again by a gusher of heavy metals.
Some notes here: First, the river was hardly pristine before this incident, and it's unclear how much additional damage this blowout has actually caused. Testing by the EPA has revealed that the heavy metal contaminants became more diluted by the time the water reached the town of Durango, and early tests downstream with fish cages have revealed that the water isn't killing them all. Still, it's a worrisome situation, and the agency is scrambling to monitor things closely.
Meanwhile, this is hardly the first disastrous blowout from an old mine. Jonathan Thompson of High Country News offers some context: "In June of 1975, a huge tailings pile on the banks of the Animas River northeast of Silverton was breached, dumping tens of thousands of gallons of water, along with 50,000 tons of heavy-metal-loaded tailings into the Animas. For 100 miles downstream, the river 'looked like aluminum paint,' according to a Durango Herald reporter at the time; fish placed in a cage in the water in Durango all died within 24 hours."
Still, what's eye-catching here is that this time the EPA is at fault - not a mining company. Even though the agency was trying to clean up a toxic mess that has been simmering for decades, even though efforts to stem the flow of polluted mining water have often gone awry, even though these particular cleanup efforts were basically expected to go awry, there's an undeniable irony in the whole situation.
"It’s hard being on the other side of this, in terms of being the one who caused this incident," David Ostrander, the EPA’s head of emergency management, told a crowd in Durango, according to the Guardian. "We usually respond to emergencies, we don’t cause them," he said.
The agency is currently facing criticism for failing to notify other agencies quickly enough after the spill occurred - including the state of New Mexico, where the polluted water is heading. Indeed, if a company had acted in a similar fashion, the EPA might have potentially levied fines or other penalties.
In the meantime, the polluted water is coursing down the river, eventually joining up with other waterways and making its way into New Mexico, with the long-term effects still unknown.
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9126853/epa-mine-spill-animas
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EPA Says It Released 3 Million Gallons Of Contaminated Water Into River
AUGUST 10, 2015 8:42 AM ET
BILL CHAPPELL
Contaminated wastewater is seen at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in San Juan County, Colo., in this picture released by the Environmental Protection Agency. The photo was taken Wednesday; the plume of contaminated water has continued to work its way downstream.
In an event that has led to health warnings and turned a river orange, the Environmental Protection Agency says one of its safety teams accidentally released contaminated water from a mine into the Animas River in southwest Colorado.
The spill, which sent heavy metals, arsenic and other contaminants into a waterway that flows into the San Juan National Forest, occurred Wednesday. The EPA initially said 1 million gallons of wastewater had been released, but that figure has risen sharply.
From member station KUNC, Stephanie Paige Ogburn reports for our Newscast unit:
"The EPA now estimates 3 million gallons of wastewater spilled from the mine into the Animas River. They also confirmed lead concentrations had spiked over 3,500 times historic levels just above the town of Durango.
"Debra McKean, a toxicologist with the agency, says levels peak and then decrease as the contamination flows downriver.
" 'Yes, those numbers are high and they are scary because they seem so high,' she said, 'especially compared to the baseline numbers.'
"New test results show significant increases in arsenic levels, and some mercury has been detected. Durango and La Plata County have declared a state of emergency."
Officials are warning residents, farmers and outdoor enthusiasts to avoid the water. The spill occurred at Cement Creek, releasing contaminants that will eventually make their way downstream toward New Mexico and Utah, in a river system that links to the Colorado River and Arizona.
Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: Contaminants Reach New Mexico
The National Park Service says that the plume of wastewater has now reached the San Juan River in New Mexico, NPR's Howard Berkes reports.
Howard adds that the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has issued a statement saying, "Most river sediments will settle out of the water when the river current slows at Lake Powell."
GCNRA spokeswoman Cynthia Sequanna tells Howard that in the slackwater of the lake, "We expect most sediments will drop out in the 40-mile section of the San Juan River that is part of Lake Powell."
The Colorado River also runs through Lake Powell in that same section.
Our original post continues:
After waiting a day to reveal the incident, the EPA has been criticized by those who say it didn't announce the accident soon enough. EPA officials say it took time to realize the magnitude of the spill.
The EPA team had been working on the Gold King Mine near Silverton, an area that has many disused mines.
KUNC reports, "Scientists say it's the largest untreated mine drainage in the state, and problematic concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese and aluminum are choking off the Upper Animas River's ecosystem."
The station also explains how the mines became sources of contaminated water:
"For most of the West's history, miners were basically allowed to run willy-nilly across the landscape, burrowing for gold, silver or other valuable minerals. According to Ronald Cohen, an environmental engineer at the Colorado School of Mines, whenever you dig into a mountain, 'at some point you are going to hit water.'
"That water, when it runs through the rocks in a mine, hits a mineral called pyrite, or iron sulfide. It reacts with air and pyrite to form sulfuric acid and dissolved iron. That acid then continues through the mine, dissolving other heavy metals, like copper and lead. Eventually, you end up with water that's got high levels of a lot of undesirable materials in it."
Reporting on how the breach occurred, Colorado Public Radio says that an EPA team used heavy equipment to dig into a dam at the Gold King Mine site, hoping to install a drain pipe. But because of the volume of water and the dam's makeup of soil and not rock, it spewed zinc, iron and contaminants into a runoff channel that leads to the nearby creek.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/10/431223703/epa-says-it-released-3-million-gallons-of-contaminated-water-into-river
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Begaye to sue Gold King Mine and EPA
by Donovan Quintero, August 9, 2015
A dam breach that released a million gallons of wastewater into the Animas River on Aug. 5 colors the river orange as it merges with the San Juan River, right, on Saturday in Farmington. Navajo Nation tribal officials have been visiting community members living along the San Juan River to inform them to not use or swim in the river’s water until further notice. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
SHIPROCK
As Navajo Nation police and tribal officials went up and down the San Juan River shore Saturday warning community members of contaminated water from the Gold King Mine, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye was making plans for a clean-up as well as possible lawsuits against the mine and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says the tribe is going to sue Gold King Mine and the EPA during a community meeting at the Shiprock Chapter House Saturday evening in Shiprock. “”Looks like we are going to be suing somebody because this is going to come down to Navajo Nation water. I did a directive, we are gonna sue the mine and also EPA,” Begaye said. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
“We are going to be suing for millions- billions of dollars,” Begaye said.
Begaye and Navajo Vice President Jonathan Nez met with between 150 and 200 community members about 5:30 p.m. Saturday to give them an update on the situation.
Begaye said he learned on Wednesday that one million gallons of mine wastewater had breached a wall at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo. and was heading for the Navajo reservation.
During an Aug. 5 excavation conducted by the EPA at the mine site, loose material gave way, spilling the contaminated water into Cement Creek, which feeds into the Animas River.
At that point. Begaye held a meeting with the NNEPA, Navajo Department of Transportation, NTUA and others to plan a strategy as they waited for the contaminated water to hit Upper Fruitland late Saturday morning.
He had two priorities: warning the Navajos in the area and making plans about what to do when the contaminated water finally reached the area.
Begay’s message gave three precautions for community members:
Prevent their livestock from drinking from the San Juan River.
Avoid diverting water from the river.
Do not enter the river.
He urged ranchers and farmers at the meeting Saturday to be especially careful of their livestock and their children and make sure they took steps to make everyone safe.
“We are going to make EPA pay for this,” he said, adding that he was going to work with NNEPA officials to do tests to see how serious the contamination was to Navajo lands.
He said he didn’t trust the EPA to do the tests because he felt the EPA would not tell them the truth and would try to get the tribe to settle for “pennies” instead of the millions or billions of dollars of damage that was done by the contaminated water.
As of Saturday, no one knew for certain just how serious the contamination was.
Photos of the water just south of the mine showed the river to be a dark mustard color but by the time it was getting to the reservation, it had obviously been diluted in part because of the decision to release more water from the Navajo Dam.
Begaye urged farmers and ranchers to make note of any damage the contaminated water did to their crops and their livestock so that the tribe could ask for damages for them as well.
One thing that is also uncertain is when and how long a clean up will take.
Begaye said he wanted it started as soon as possible, adding that one EPA official said the cleanup could take decades, a remark that got a visible reaction from the people in the audience.
Earl Yazzie, a farmer from Shiprock, reacts when Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says the EPA said it could take decades to clean up the contamination they caused to the Animas River and San Juan River during a community meeting at the Shiprock Chapter House in Shiprock, N.M. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
Earl Yazzie, a farmer from Shiprock, said reports of the contamination was a “big blow to us.”
“This is stressing me out,” he added. “This is just not me but a lot of people are impacted who have farms to take care of.”
He added that water to the area has been off since Thursday.
Duane “Chili” Yazzie, president of the Shiprock Chapter as well as a farmer himself, said his biggest concern was how long before the water is turned back on.
“In two or three weeks, farming families are going to be hurting,” he said. “It’s their livelihood.”
Begaye said the areas that will affected will be affected stretch from the Upper Fruitland area to Lake Powell.” He said some 500 families live along that stretch of the San Juan River.
But this will also affect Navajo communities, such as Red Mesa, to the south and possibly even the Navajo-Gallup Water Pipeline which is currently under construction.
A map put on a chalkboard at the Shiprock Chapter House indicates that the contaminated water will reach Lake Powell at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, August 12.
A command center has been set at the Shiprock Chapter House. The number is there is 505-368-1037 or 928-871-7891.
http://navajotimes.com/reznews/begaye-to-sue-gold-king-mine-and-epa/#.Vck9CPmqqkp
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Gold mine's toxic plume extends to Utah
Staff, The (Farmington, N.M.) Daily Times 11:35 p.m. EDT August 10, 2015
On the scene at the abandoned gold mine in Silverton, Colo., at the source of the spill that has turned the Animas River orange. Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
FARMINGTON, N.M. - The plume of heavy metals released last week into the Animas River from the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo., reached Utah on Monday.
As of Monday evening, officials said the plume of contamination was southeast of Montezuma Creek, Utah, and was headed for Lake Powell. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the pollutants in the plume include arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium, but have not released any detailed information on the spill that started Wednesday morning and has since been contained.
The Gold King Mine's discharge raises the possibility of long-term damage from the toxic metals falling out of suspension as the plume slowly moves along the river.
"Sediment does settle," said Shaun McGrath, administrator of EPA's Region 8. "It settles down to the bottom of the riverbed."
EPA officials announced Monday afternoon that public access to the Animas and San Juan rivers would continue to be closed until at least Aug. 17.
One rural water user association in San Juan County, where New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency Monday, has spent thousands of dollars buying water from Farmington and Aztec because it had to shut down its wells after the toxic mine waste spilled into the Animas last week.
"We don't want to take a chance of contaminating them - and it sure has cost us a lot of money," said Rick Mitchell, Flora Vista Mutual Domestic Water Association general manager.
Mustard-colored water began rushing out of the Gold King Mine in southern Colorado on Wednesday after an EPA team disturbed a dam of loose rock lodged in the mine.
The deluge of polluted water poured into Cement Creek and continued into the Animas River. The plume of pollution, clearly visible from the air and estimated to be more than 80 miles long at one point, reached Farmington, N.M., on Saturday morning.
McGrath said future runoff from storms will kick that toxic sediment back into the water, which means there will need to be long-term monitoring.
EPA: Pollution from mine spill much worse than feared
He added that "the Animas River has historically been polluted by acid mine drainage."
Chapters within the Northern Agency have started the process of issuing emergency declarations after toxic mine waste flowed down the San Juan River onto the Navajo Nation.
The San Juan River travels west through the Navajo Nation, then converges with the Colorado River at Lake Powell in southeastern Utah. For the chapter communities near the San Juan River, it is the main source of water for crops and livestock.
So far, the chapters of Upper Fruitland, Nenahnezad, San Juan and Shiprock have issued either declarations or resolutions calling for a state of emergency within their boundaries.
People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo.,People kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., Aug. 6, 2015, in water colored from a mine waste spill. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that a cleanup team was working with heavy equipment Wednesday to secure an entrance to the Gold King Mine. Workers instead released an estimated 1 million gallons of mine waste into Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas River. Jerry McBride, APFullscreen
The "slug" of pollution, which the EPA says contains metals and is about as acidic as black coffee, is headed toward Lake Powell.
Silverton is surrounded by abandoned mines, and the EPA was checking on one of the worst ones, the Gold King, when the breach occurred. Area residents are furious that the federal agency charged with fighting pollution accidentally caused it.
The Animas has largely returned to running clear below Silverton and into Durango, although some of the orange sediment remains in some puddles and along the shore.
EPA pollutes Colo. river during mine cleanup
Officials advise residents with wells in the flood plains of the Animas River and the San Juan River downstream of the confluence of the two rivers to have their water tested before using it for cooking, drinking or bathing.
County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter voiced frustration about the delay in getting information about the chemicals in the water. The data, he said, will "give us a big picture of what we are going to deal with and the long-term effects we will have to deal with."
Contributing: Steve Garrison, Joshua Kellogg and Noel Lyn Smith, The (Farmington, N.M.) Daily Times; and Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/10/navajo-nation-epa-mine-wastewater-spill/31399517/