EPA spill: 'The magnitude of it, you can't even describe it'

CNN ^ | 10 Aug 15 | Dana Ford

[LSUfan]

The city of Durango and La Plata County, Colorado, have declared a state of emergency after a federal cleanup crew accidentally released mine waste into the water.

An estimated 1 million gallons of waste water spilled out of an abandoned mine area in the southern part of the state last week, turning the Animas River orange and prompting the Environmental Protection Agency to tell locals to avoid it.

According to the EPA, the spill occurred when one of its teams was using heavy equipment to enter the Gold King Mine, a suspended mine near Durango. Instead of entering the mine and beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.

[Colonel_Flagg]

I wonder if the poster is ignorant or trying to spin this into something it's not.

It's Reddit. Ignorance abounds there.