EPA contaminates Animas River/CO

[Poser]

http://www.denverpost.com/environme...ontaminated-by-1-million-gallons-contaminated

 

[TheHardWay]

I live just outside of Durango and can say that this is quite the mess. Durango is on water restrictions and still waiting for test results. The effects are probably going to be huge. Everything from wildlife, fish, to agriculture down stream. I humungous F up on the part of the EPA.

 

[Gar]

I do not like the EPA. Now I really despise them! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Gar

 

[dotman]

Just got home from Pagosa and heard about this, talk about BS. I bet the EPA receives zero political or gov backlash from this.

 

[realunlucky]

I was also heart broken as I watched this news. Any spill a quarter of this proportion would bankrupt any corporation in this country permanently putting them out of business forever. Lingering effects will last at least 50 years. Hopefully the government will be honest with the public about the effects and long term effects but judging from past performance not looking good. A beautiful place completely ruined by the people supposedly there to protect it.

 

[realunlucky]

The gold mine clean up was for slow leaching. I hope they sue EPA for a refund of their clean up money since it's all for naught now.

 

[husky390]

Wonder who the EPA is going to fine for this one.......... Pretty sad.

 

[BroodBuster]

Rat Bastards!!!

And now they want to do the same thing in Ak at the headwaters of the worlds last great wild salmon run. Yea that'll work??

Rat Bastards make their millions and leave the ****ing mess to the taxpayers and incompetent corrupt politicians!!!!

Dirty Rat Bastards!!!!

 

[TheHardWay]

I was just watching the local news and they had some "expert" from hippy-ville Boulder saying that the EPA shouldn't be fully responsible for the spill. Blame should also fall on whoever owned the mine decades ago (who is probably long time dead now) and didn't clean it up. I hate rain on his parade, but way back when, there weren't the laws in place that we have to day regarding clean up. They probably did what was required at that time and called it good. Even so, what good does it to blame some dead guy??? Sounds like an excuse to me. My problem with the EPA and the contractor they were using is why wasn't there a Plan B in place? Why were retention ponds filled in prior to this? It would seem like a project such as this, where the consequences of a failure are so far-reaching, would have Plan B, C, & D in place before equipment was even moved into place. Seems like common sense. Oh wait....its the EPA....

 

[gelton]

EPA = Epidemic Parasite Agency. What else can you expect? Wouldn't describe myself as a disciple of Reagan like some, but boy did he get it right here:

[video=youtube;xhYJS80MgYA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhYJS80MgYA[/video]

 

[El Gavilan]

That's the kind of crap that happens when government regs require you to hire the lowest bidder. The contractor should be responsible for cleanup and should have posted a large bond for this project.

 

[realunlucky]

I agree with you but no bond would be enough to cover this disaster

 

[dotman]

Sounds like the Navajo nation is going to sue the EPA and Feds over this. They will receive a large settlement while everyone else will be left on their own.

 

[TheHardWay]

The city of Farmington in New Mexico is also suppose to be suing the EPA. Farmington is about 40 miles south of Durango and the Animas runs right through there as well. Domestic and agricultural water is pulled from river there.

 

[El Gavilan]

You watch, it'll end up with the contractor being a native American tribal company that the Navajo end up suing. There has been lots of tribal company contracting in the government for the last 10 years and like everything else, some good and some not so good.

 

[5MilesBack]

How does over 3 million gallons of waste water remain inside a mine since at least 1923 when it was sealed, without leaching back into the groundwater?

Something like this happened up in Leadville a few years ago as well, not sure how that one ended up.

 

[Tuscor]

Humanity is sure fecking up the earth right?! (I know it was the EPA this time - but you have to wonder how many more ticking time bombs there are out there, and home many we are creating now, with fracking and oil pipelines and so on).

 

[Gar]

The sad thing is, suing the EPA is like taking money out of our pockets seeing how the EPA is tax payer funded. I would rather the people at the top of the EPA food chain be held civilly liable from their own funds for this mess, not the tax payers. Sad deal all the way around really.

Gar

 

[Shrek]

The really bad thing is the EPA is already using this as an excuse to turn the area into a superfund taxpayers money black hole and seize all kinds of control over water and land use in the area. The spill looks bad and it is not a good thing but it's not a huge deal either. A couple million gallons sounds like a lot but it's not really and the river will quickly dilute the heavy metals and flush them out of the system. There will be little long term issues with the actual pollutants but the federal powder grab already under way are probably irreversible.

 

[gelton]

In case you havent seen it here is a "letter to the editor" published in the local newspaper 4-5 days before the event: