EPA spills 1M gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River

[DavieD55]

Article from Examiner

Durango is livid with the EPA, responsible for spilling a million gallons of heavy metal-contaminated wastewater into the Animas River from an abandoned mine north of Silverton, Colorado.

The disgustingly yellow waters contain zinc, iron, cadmium, lead, arsenic, copper plus other undisclosed heavy metals. Assumed as tailings from past mining operations rather than salts, the toxic waste will eventually settle out to the bottom of downstream areas including Lake Powell, killing whatever lives there as well as en route.

Tasked with cleaning up Gold King mine, the EPA breached a berm causing the toxic water to flow into the Animas River. Silverton, Colorado, an old mining town, and Durango, its neighbor fifty miles south, are full of vacationers anxious to enjoy the usually cool crystal mountain waters and river recreation on the Animas. But, both towns are suffering from visitors turning away from the disgusting waters flowing through their town centers. The Animas also supplies water to ranches and municipalities on its dam-less way downstream to Lake Powell.

Besides toxifying supplies of potable water, the EPA suffers the wrath of towns people depending on summer business from river recreation. Rafting, kayaking, swimming, and fishing have been banned. The fish are dead, killed by the toxic waters. The EPA has proven itself incompetent if not oblivious to its inept operations. Have we ever seen government do anything right?

I know, I was there in Durango on Thursday, August 6, to see just how incredibly yellow the Animas was as it flowed through the vacation destination of the beautiful San Juan Mountains. This morning, it was a putrid green. This evening, now, it's clearing a little, but the river is off limits to everyone, the river rafters have shut down and the town full of vacationers are not enjoying the river sports they came for. Durango businesses is hurting.

The EPA should be sent to the dustbin of history. It's doing everything BUT saving the environment. Durango resident, Susan Troen, suspected that EPA might get off without so much as a hand slap. "No doubt they'll blame it on the local contractor who operated the excavating equipment. He's probably out of town by now." The local contractor has not been identified. It would not be unlike the EPA to target a local scapegoat to take the heat for its botched job.

Downstream users were instructed to turn off their intake valves. One of those users is the new Lake Nighthorse, the legacy of Ben Nighthorse Cambell, former Colorado Congressman and Senator.

The Lake is sourced by water pumped from the Animas to the higher elevation of the Lake. As of this writing, the Lake appeared to have heeded the pumping warning. On observation, no yellow waters appear to have maligned the blue mountain waters of Lake Nighthorse.
The EPA spokesman for disaster on the Animas, David Ostrander, the EPA’s head of emergency management had this to say:

This is a huge tragedy, and it’s hard being on the other side of this, in terms of being the one who caused this incident. We usually respond to emergencies, we don’t cause them.

Folks in the Four Corners region think Ostrander articulated his career ending statement. The rest of us are thinking it's time to get rid of the EPA, an idea that Newt Gingrich seeded nearly four years ago.

[ray1970]

I laughed when I heard about this. I wonder who the EPA pays a big fine to when they f**k up?

[Gman]

They just get a 'do-over' and do us over again. Government accountability...now there's a contradiction in terms.

[Aloha_Shooter]

They get to charge US the innocent taxpayers for their screw-ups because they will inevitably claim they need a budget increase to handle the emergency. No doubt the dolts who caused this will even get promoted for responding quickly to an unprecedented crisis and efficiently managing millions of dollars worth of response. The three Es (Environment, Education, and Energy) should just be terminated. None of them have any Constitutional justification and the first two have arguably never done anything positive and only exacerbated the problems they were intended to address.

[sniper7]

If it was gold nobody would be complaining! They would be out there with their pans and dredgers and anything else to scoop it up!

very sad to see, too bad it wasn't prevented, hopefully they will get it clean up quick

[nogaroheli]

Hickenlooper just called it an emergency and kicked in half a million dollars towards the spill clean up. Wouldn't it be nice if the EPA had to pay an incredibly exorbitant fine AND pay to clean up the mess they created? I hope they and the spill disappear quickly.

[Bailey Guns]

The EPA turned a fuel spill into the Clearwater River into a goat fuck this past Saturday as well.

A truck tanker hit a rock in the roadway and overturned. The spill was around 1500 to 1700 gallons. Crews from the trucking company and other agencies were on scene quickly with the equipment, people and resources to clean the spill before much of the fuel could seep into the river.

Then the EPA shows up and tells everyone they cant do anything until several studies are completed.

KAMIAH - The initial work to contain a diesel fuel spill following an accident on U.S. Highway 12 near here is complete, but it will likely be at least a week if not longer before full-scale remediation gets underway.

That's a frustrating time scale for Gary Cantrell, one of the principals of Orofino-based Atkinson Distributing, which owns the truck involved in the accident.

"It won't take long to dig it out if they would just let us get started," he said. "To me, it's more important to get at it and keep it from going into the river."

But the EPA isn't having any of that until they wrap the entire operation with an appropriate amount of red, government issued, tape:

By late Thursday afternoon, fuel began leaching into the river, but a sheen was not visible Friday morning.

Earl Liverman, an on-scene coordinator from the EPA, said there is about 1,500 to 1,700 gallons of fuel in the soil beside the highway and on the banks of the river. He worked with a team that included representatives from several state, federal and tribal agencies at the scene Friday to develop a strategy to remove the contaminated soil.

"We began to develop the plan to enable Atkinson to come in here and clean up the product," he said. But before that work can start, several steps, ranging from securing water quality permits to completing archeological assessments and soil testing, must be taken.

Understandably, people in the area are pretty upset with the idiots from the EPA. They rank right up there with the TSA.

[KS63]

EPA should reimburse everyone affected by this with a check. A private business would've been shut down with Enviroment freaks chanting outside their door.

[Aloha_Shooter]

The EPA turned a fuel spill into the Clearwater River into a goat fuck this past Saturday as well.

A truck tanker hit a rock in the roadway and overturned. The spill was around 1500 to 1700 gallons. Crews from the trucking company and other agencies were on scene quickly with the equipment, people and resources to clean the spill before much of the fuel could seep into the river.

Then the EPA shows up and tells everyone they cant do anything until several studies are completed.

How are they supposed to levy massive fines on the trucking company and get personal bonuses if the spill is mitigated before the fuel hits the water supply?

[Gman]

EPA should reimburse everyone affected by this with a check. A private business would've been shut down with Enviroment freaks chanting outside their door.

EPA reimbursing everyone = us taxpayers reimbursing everyone

How does this solve the problem?