'They're not going to get away with this': Anger mounts at EPA over mining spill

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Anger was mounting Monday at the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the massive spill of millions of gallons of toxic sludge from a Colorado gold mine that has already fouled three major waterways and may be three times bigger than originally reported.

 

An 80-mile length of mustard-colored water -- laden with arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium -- is working its way south toward New Mexico and Utah, following Wednesday's accidental release from the Gold King Mine, near Durango, when an EPA cleanup crew destabilized a dam of loose rock lodged in the mine. The crew was supposed to pump out and decontaminate the sludge, but instead released it into tiny Cement Creek. From there, it flowed into the Animas River and made its way into larger tributaries, including the San Juan and Colorado rivers.

 

"They are not going to get away with this," said Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation, which intends to sue the EPA.

 

Visible from the air, the toxic slick prompted EPA Region 8 administrator Shaun McGrath to acknowledge the possibility of long-term damage from toxic metals.

 

"Sediment does settle," McGrath said. "It settles down to the bottom of the river bed."

________

 

The ENvironmental Pollution Agency-brought to you by the folks who want to regulate our streams and ponds.