Posted on 08/09/2015 7:00:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Reuters) - Some 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater, triple previous estimates, have poured from a defunct Colorado gold mine into local streams since a team of Environmental Protection Agency workers accidentally triggered the spill last week, EPA officials said on Sunday.
The discharge, containing high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead, was continuing to flow at the rate of 500 gallons per minute on Sunday, four days after the spill began at the Gold King Mine, the EPA said.
An unspecified number of residents living downstream of the spill who draw their drinking supplies from their private wells have reported water discoloration, but there has been no immediate evidence of harm to human health, livestock or wildlife, EPA officials told reporters in a telephone conference call.
Still, residents were advised to avoid drinking or bathing in water drawn from wells in the vicinity, and the government was arranging to supply water to homes and businesses in need.
The spill began on Wednesday after an EPA inspection team was called to the abandoned mine near the town of Silverton in southwestern Colorado to examine previously existing wastewater seepage.
As workers excavated loose debris at the site, they inadvertently breached the wall of a mine tunnel, unleashing a flow of the orange-tinged slurry that cascaded into Cement Creek and then into the Animas River downstream.
The town of Durango, Colorado, roughly 50 miles south of the spill site, shut off its intakes of river water as a precaution, according to the EPA.
By Friday, the main plume of the spill had traveled some 75 miles south to the New Mexico border, prompting utilities in the towns of Aztec and Farmington to shut off their intakes from the Animas as well, local authorities said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And here I thought the EPA just sat behind desks.
They apparently have gone full retard
They have no business or qualifications to be diverting anything.
Obviously
Sounds like planned terrorism.
It’d be very interesting to know how many pounds of dynamite caused this “accident” and how many more millions of gallons of toxic waste will be released above the 1 million gallons the EPA first reported.
I doubt we’ll be getting those answers from these pathetic bureaucrats in this criminal agency.
So who breached the “damn” dam and how and why?
I do not know what the intentions were to do with the water before it was breached. Maybe there was just finger pointing while the polluted water went higher and higher.
Does Superfund need to wait till something like that turns into a tragic spill?
The amount of heavy metals is not that great from what I’ve read. Arsenic is the big worry and it doesn’t seem that big a percent of the effluent. I doubt it will contaminate the ground water to any great extent. It is a stupid mistake of the EPA still.
The old saw goes, pollution is a resource out of place.
Would it have been worth it, or at least possible, to “mine” the water. Whatever made it toxic might be valuable in a different context.
This was a mine for gold, and I assume the water isn’t polluted with gold (or someone would want it).
So what do they get, just miscellaneous minerals that were in the vicinity of the gold seam?
PING!
Associated Press
EPA: No health risks to wildlife after Colorado mine spill
https://news.yahoo.com/epa-no-health-risks-wildlife-colorado-mine-spill-222946025.html
DENVER (AP) — An Environmental Protection Agency official said Sunday she doesn’t believe wildlife will suffer significant health impacts from the large volume of wastewater that spilled from an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado.
...
Stuff happens.
Well what IS the contents of it.
“...said Sunday she doesn’t believe wildlife will suffer significant health impacts from the large volume of wastewater that spilled from an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado.”
That sounds great. Now they can declare the mine site clean and save millions of dollars in exploration and remediation costs!
That is from the Declaration of Independence. It has turned full circle, these agencies exist to further their own existence, and harass the people they "serve” for their sustenance. It is time to say ENOUGH! That was said with the Declaration, how could we be at the same point again?
We know exactly what will happen. The technique was introduced by Clinton, and Obama uses it all the time.
After a few weeks, or months, the EPA will "revise upward" their "estimate" of the amount of polluted water released.
The new "revised" estimate will be more like 100 million gallons, or 500 millions gallons.
This story will be covered in the MSM as a routine correction in some data generated by a government agency.
That’s about right.
Stuff Happens.
Exactly.
While arsenic is the largest contaminant, the other heavy metals, such as cadmium can cause problems in trace amounts. Those metals will contaminate the sediment, and every time the mud is stirred up, it will become available.
I’m not saying to expect a lot of one-eyed deer, but if I had a kid, or Mrs. VanShuyten was gravid, I’d be real cautious about drinking the water.
This is a pic of Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum Photo: Along the Animas River long before the river turned yellow due to this EPA.
This photo of Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Kinda reminds me of the low-key media response to the BP oil spill.
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