Update: EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill

WLF Legal Pulse ^ | August 6, 2020

[where's_the_Outrage?]

Almost five years to the day after its own employees’ and contractors’ negligence caused 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste to spill out of an abandoned mine and into the Animas River, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a $360 million settlement of a suit Utah filed against the agency. A February 2016 WLF Legal Pulse post discussed the accident and contrasted it to a waste spill in West Virginia of significantly less magnitude that led EPA to pursue criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.

As discussed in our post, “evidence abounds that the Gold King Mine spill resulted from the negligence of EPA employees and contractors and the agency’s disregard of serious pollution risks” The post continues:

Prior to commencing work on August 5, the on-site EPA team failed to conduct a routine water pressure reading, the result of which would (or should) have forestalled further action. No such reading was taken, and contractors proceeded to dig into the mine’s floor with a backhoe, blowing out a plug and triggering the deluge of yellow sludge into Cement Creek, which feeds the Animas and San Juan Rivers.

EPA’s on-site coordinator, Hays Griswold, remarked at the time of the spill that “nobody expected [the water in the mine] to be that high.” Once the spill occurred, the agency delayed informing the governments of downstream states for nearly a full day. New Mexico’s environmental secretary remarked that EPA “[was] really downplaying the issue.”

Local media reported that “Utah will reap million of dollars’ worth of environmental cleanup and monitoring benefits in a ‘landmark’ agreement”— as if the settlement provided a windfall benefit to the state and its residents.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

Was looking for the photo and found this old article, search said it had not been posted. But it shows the EPA at work.

[riverrunner]

So what is the condition of the river and area today.

As we have seen with massive oil spills thing go back to normal.

[MissNomer]

I remember this spill. At the time, I suspected it was an underhanded tactic to force downstream landowners to sell so that some politically connected person could grab their land for a song, but I never found out whether there was any support for that. Does anyone know?

[chopperk]

Maybe Hays was smoking dope when he should have been monitoring the situation.

[Sacajaweau]

I remember that. The EPA did something really, really stupid.

[sonova]

Wasn’t this in Colorado? Article says Utah. I am in Colorado and remember seeing the yellow water...

[kaktuskid]

The waters go into Utah.

[G Larry]

As with most things EPA, this was a scheme to make the downstream land undevelopable.

A local geologist had published an article just 2 weeks prior that EPA earthmoving efforts seemed designed to have such a devastating result, as the blowout.

[marktwain]

Looks as though the Animus river is doing very well.

https://riversmith.com/blogs/news/animas-river-fly-fishing?srsltid=AfmBOoryL4P78TuKCFEiY9sJRfHeaUaQQsaUEQNwQoWN6ogwE1mXSV3Q

[Red Badger]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Gold_King_Mine_waste_water_spill

[Does so]

EPA hired a contractor who didn’t take things into account—maybe a relative...?

[george76]

Gold King Mine was planned sabotage, NOT “an accident”..

Gina McCarthy and Deb Haaland are on Biden’s climate team. This should be interesting given both of their ties to the disastrous Gold King Mine spill of 2015.

That year, a mine up near Silverton, Colorado was under clean-up protocols by the EPA

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3917290/posts

[PeterPrinciple]

Local media reported that “Utah will reap million of dollars’ worth of environmental cleanup and monitoring benefits in a ‘landmark’ agreement”— as if the settlement provided a windfall benefit to the state and its residents.

---

Knowing Trump, I would suspect there is something in the agreement for accountability.

[SunkenCiv]

• New Mexico Water Group Tells Monument-Happy Biden to Cool It [11/22/2024]
  (the Animas River / Gold King Mine keywords, sorted)
• Gavin Newsom to Victims of California Fires: 'You Can't Rebuild the Same, Have to Rebuild With Climate Reality in Mind' (VIDEO) [02/06/2025]
• Climate refugees? Biden executive order wants study on resettling those 'displaced' by climate change [02/11/2021]
• The Real Purpose of Net Zero [02/07/2025]

[packrat35]

So the EPA funded by taxpayers is going to pay a fine. Oh goodie, do the PEOPLE actually responsible have to pay anything?

[ansel12]

This was one of those huge environmental stories that the media never showed much interest in.