This account is difficult to make out.
One would think if a Superfund-like effort is needed to fix a spill anywhere, it would be this one. Now since it was the EPA’s fault, I guess it can go ding itself for the cost once it’s done. But I’m just seeing people complain around the edges without any description of what the middle is all about.
The EPA caused this spill . Intentionally. For money.
The mine was stable until the EPA fooled around with it.
No one was fired.
The Navajo Indians in New Mexico are also suing the EPA.
...
As of 1991, all mining ceased on Sunnyside’s properties and Sunnyside immediately began reclaiming its sites, working with the Colorado Water Quality Control Division. In 1996, Sunnyside entered into a consent decree, reviewed by the EPA and approved by a Colorado district court, requiring Sunnyside to complete specific remediation actions on its sites. In 2003, Sunnyside fulfilled its reclamation duties and the consent decree was terminated.
Colorado and local governments opposed efforts by the EPA to add ( new , more ) sites in the Animas River Valley to the NPL.
Going back to its origins, Superfund was a nasty scheme to impose retroactive joint and several liability in order to empower EPA to go after the deepest pocket on the horizon, regardless of its proportional share of responsibility for the contamination of any given site. This led to quite bizarre theories of liability and to enforcement actions that any honest observer would regard as patently unfair. In this instance, I assume EPA is going after "commingled releases" in order to shift the financial liability from itself to various private parties whose own contribution to the mess is dramatically smaller than EPA's.