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 ...
Anyone else confused by this terminology?
Yes I am sure that fish, turtles and other aquatic wild life have no problems living in water that containing high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead
I am sure that they will thrive.
/S
Did the Durango/Silverton train ride in June. I can’t believe the EPA killed that beautiful river.
I’d think the heavy metals will reduce themselves rather quickly but you don’t want the drink the effluent just right now. This could have been corrected quickly.
Just like the gold mining shows. They take a big backhoe and dig on the dam till they breach it. The water does the rest.
And yet, our mild air pollution is costing thousands of lives per year . . . maybe.
Once it hits the Colorado River, the bureaucrats in DC will begin to realize that the drinking water for California is about to be shut off.
THEN...they’ll think about damming up the spill.
There was a farmer had a dog and RICO was his name-o
R, I, C and O!
R, I, C and O!
R, I, C and O!
And RICO was his Name-O!!!!
Thanks for that map!
Another 150 miles and its in Lake Powell ....
How many people get their drinking water from —there—?
-snip- containing high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead -snip- 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
Outright lies.
I am not sure what you mean by that but I don’t think the flow of toxic water could have been stopped easily once it started.
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 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.
Once they breach the wall of that tunnel there was no stopping it. If it is flowing at 500 gallons per minute four days after the first breach that tells you that the height of the water above the breach has to be substantial and the pressure of the water has to be enormous.
You are not just going to put a cork in the hole. Not being there I can’t really say but the only chance they might have had was to dam the creek and try to contain the contaminated water. But then I don’t know what the surrounding land is like.
Everytime it rains there will be more contamination.
4 days.... 96 hours.... 5,760 minutes.... 500 gallons a minute....
That’s 2.88 million gallons of water thus far.
If 0bama fails to order the Corps of Engineers to dam the San Juan before the EPA contamination flows another 150 miles, then the drinking water for Los Angeles will become toxic.
The San Juan River flows into Lake Powell, which empties into the Colorado River, which supplies 5 million acre-feet of fresh water to drought-starved LA.
What do YOU think he will do.
My vote: Failure to order.
According to my calculations, 2.88 million gallons of contaminated water have spilled thus far ....
And they haven’t plugged it yet...
And SoCal is in a drought...
We were in Durango the last week of July and noted the Animus river banks had an unnatural orange deposit. I was wondering what it was.
Immediately damming the San Juan should be publicly demanded by Cruz and Trump.
I agree with that. Can I ask you to be point man in making those calls? I got too much on my plate. Coordinate with kristinn, he's got some pull.
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