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EPA spill: 'The magnitude of it, you can't even describe it'
CNN ^ | 10 Aug 15 | Dana Ford

Posted on 08/10/2015 2:54:07 AM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bureaucracy; coloradoepaspill; epa; epaminespill; epawastewater; epawastewaterspill; erinbrockovich; goldkingmine; navajonation; obamasfault; taxdollarsatwork; water
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts

I worked at various Superfund “remediation” sites for the FedGov in the late 80s. It was the biggest scam up to that time. We were at remote sites in the arctic pulling up materials from WWII . Spent uncounted millions on nothing.

I’ll never forget when we got the call at a particular job—we had just sampled and containerized around 30K barrels. As soon as we were done, they came back and said our containers no longer met the new Federal standard and we would have to repack the entire site. I always wondered which Senator’s brother owned the container contract.


21 posted on 08/10/2015 4:28:23 AM PDT by antidisestablishment (I was mad when they changed Republican states to Red, but I now I see they were right.)
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To: LSUfan

I worked for some years as an environmental attorney working for Fortune 500 companies.

Had this been one of those companies, it would be front page news everyday, criminal indictments would be threatened (Probably not actually issued) and million of dollars of fines handed out. Emergency consent decrees issued and every dime the EPA could figure out how to spend would be tacked onto the bill. (And, man, can they spend money!)

Oldplayer


22 posted on 08/10/2015 4:31:42 AM PDT by oldplayer
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To: struggle
It sounds like the BP oil rig that the Coast Guard blew over with high pressured water.

If you are talking about the Deepwater Horizon spill while drilling the Mercado in 2010, The rig was not blown over with water. The fire melted steel; the floating rig lost boyancey and it sank. The Coast Guard didn't cause that spill.

23 posted on 08/10/2015 4:35:52 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: LSUfan

I would like to know if the actual workers creating the spill were EPA workers or EPA contractors.

I really can’t visualize an EPA worker hands on in a job like this


24 posted on 08/10/2015 4:36:36 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, .. Iran deal & holocaust: Obama's batting clean up for Adolph Hitler)
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To: john drake
Unless the EPA is disbanded

I was once very interested in disbanding the EPA, or repealing the "EPA law". I even went to the point of having a crack at drafting legislation.

But, it's not so simple.

The "EPA" was not created by Congress, and, should it cease to exist, the laws it is charged with enforcing would still be on the books. Those laws, passed by Congress and signed by four Presidents between 1955 and 1970, grant legislative authority to the President and command that he "end pollution in all waters of the United States", etc, etc.

The EPA problem exists because those laws exist. It's the laws that are unreasonable, not the particular executive mechanism for seeing that they are enforced.

Now, it's true that grants of legislative authority to unaccountable bureaucrats + a President who hates America causes big problems.

But, the EPA was created to SIMPLIFY enforcement of laws that previously required environazis at Agriculture, Interior, Justice, Health, Education, and Welfare, Commerce, Labor, and many other entities within the Executive Branch.

End the EPA and leave the laws that made it necessary in place, and you will simply multiply the bureaucracy twenty-fold.

25 posted on 08/10/2015 4:41:58 AM PDT by Jim Noble (You walk into the room like a camel and then you frown)
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To: LSUfan

The bureaucrats will get all the overtime they need and rewarded for their hard work. They are from the government and here to help...


26 posted on 08/10/2015 4:43:17 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: antidisestablishment

We had several Superfund sites around my hometown. Basically every factory, etc. that used to employ thousands, now only employ government contractors.

The cleanups have extended for decades, almost as long as the original industries were there.


27 posted on 08/10/2015 4:51:43 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: LSUfan

Nixon’s legacy. Statist jerk that he was.


28 posted on 08/10/2015 4:58:31 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: sf4dubya

The mine has been closed since the 20’s IIRC.


29 posted on 08/10/2015 5:15:58 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: SaveFerris

Yeah, they’ll pay, with our money.


30 posted on 08/10/2015 5:19:49 AM PDT by Eagles6 ( Valley Forge Redux. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us then who?)
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To: Jim Noble

Those are much ‘law’ as the ‘gun control act of ‘XX’ is ‘law’, or the new ‘treaty authority’, or ...

Course, I guess, when your bread is buttered by the same pool of ill gotten gains (taxpayers), you’re less than NOT willing to rock the boat on unconstitutional acts.


31 posted on 08/10/2015 5:20:20 AM PDT by i_robot73 ("A man chooses. A slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan)
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To: Paladin2
Yeah, the Einsteins EPA contracted with to "investigate" the mine not only broke open the holding pond, they haven't been able to figure out how to close it up. Still draining.

Bunch of a**-hats. They're running around a mine that is already closed down and trashed (now, thanks to them) almost certainly never to reopen. They've got heavy equipment on hand - hey, they already used it to eff things up. How hard is it to figure out how to make a temporary coffer to halt or drastically reduce the flow?

32 posted on 08/10/2015 5:24:36 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: Timber Rattler
I panned for gold in the Animas near Farmington.

It is (was) a beautiful river.

33 posted on 08/10/2015 5:25:22 AM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Hunga Tonga-Hunga.)
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To: LSUfan
I saw a post on Reddit that had a picture of the polluted river and said something like 'look what mining is doing to our rivers' or something like that.

I wonder if the poster is ignorant or trying to spin this into something it's not.
34 posted on 08/10/2015 5:29:09 AM PDT by a_screen_name
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To: LSUfan

The EPA has NO money... it’s all taxpayers’ money.


35 posted on 08/10/2015 5:30:38 AM PDT by Baldwin77 (Christians want their RAINBOW back. I'm offended the gays use a Biblical icon as their flag.)
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To: Charles Martel
The Cement creek - previously struggling, now undoubtedly dead - flows into the Animas river. That flows into the San Juan. The San Juan flows into Lake Powell - yeah, one of those big reservoirs everyone's been so concerned about. Within Lake Powell this flow joins the Colorado river. Flows through the Grand Canyon, and then in Lake Mead. The same Lake Mead that is at historical lows due to over-commitment of water.

So with this ongoing eff-up they are threatening recreation, tourism, and drinking water / ag water across a pretty good swath of the southwestern US. Everything from the indian reservations of SW Colorado and NW New Mexico through the drinking water for Las Vegas, Phoenix, LA, and water for So-Cal ag including the Imperial valley.

You'd almost think they wanted/needed another crisis/opportunity, and here one is for them.

36 posted on 08/10/2015 5:31:43 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: LSUfan

You would use the law to oppose socialism? But it is upon the law that socialism itself relies. Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder. Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? - Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat

DEFUND/DISMANTLE domestic socialist collectives

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. - list of grievances - Declaration

https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies

UNaccountable bureaucrats are socialists.


37 posted on 08/10/2015 5:31:47 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: ThunderSleeps

The should round up some of the fracker peeps they put out of business who are used to hauling bad water around.


38 posted on 08/10/2015 5:31:56 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
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To: unsycophant
What does “accidentally caused it to flow”, even mean?

That's the government's way of saying "We f***** up really bad".

39 posted on 08/10/2015 5:38:52 AM PDT by ken in texas
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To: LSUfan

Most likely they will be PROMOTED!

The articles keep saying they were “using heavy equipment to enter the mine”. I can hear an excuse brewing.


40 posted on 08/10/2015 5:43:55 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchaned our dreams for survival. We just have a few days that don't suck.)
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