Wastewater from Colorado mine dumped into Animas river

[Sohei]

Originally Posted by Sdiver

Yup, seems to be the mantra of this administration .... "The law applies to thee, not to me."

Yep...Submit you peasants....

We know what's right for you...just ask us!

[Hand]

They did it again. Let's see if anyone gets fired this time!

Only an estimated 2,000 gallons spilled Tuesday, amid efforts to open a collapsed portal. The impact on town water is expected to be minimal.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton said the spill — while not a disaster like the EPA-triggered 3 million-gallon Gold King deluge that turned the Animas River mustard-yellow — raises questions about EPA procedures.

"They told us things were going to be different. Now we have a spill. ... We've apparently got a real challenge with the EPA, not only with notification but their accountability and their ability to adequately execute these types of cleanup projects," Tipton said. "They've got resources. They're the ones in charge of the program. And they've had two spills in my district alone. Is there a better way to approach this?"

The Standard Mine, five miles west of Crested Butte and abandoned, has been designated an environmental disaster since 2005 and targeted for a superfund cleanup. It is one of an estimated 230 inactive mines in Colorado that state officials know to be leaking toxic heavy metals into headwaters of the nation's rivers.

EPA work at the Standard Mine was halted after the Aug. 5 Gold King blowout above Silverton — pending an EPA review of procedures at old mines. The Standard Mine work resumed Sept. 5.

Tuesday spill

The spill happened at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the EPA said it immediately informed public works officials. Residents weren't notified. Crested Butte Mayor Aaron Huckstep said he wasn't notified until Thursday.

EPA officials on Wednesday, responding to Denver Post queries about the mine, didn't reveal the spill. On Thursday afternoon, the agency issued a prepared statement saying that, based on neutral acidity and creek flow levels, Crested Butte didn't close its water intakes.

"Subsequent investigation found no visible plume or signs of significant impacts in downstream locations," the EPA said.

At the cleanup site, acidic wastewater laced with cancer-causing cadmium and other toxic heavy metals leaches out of the mine into Elk Creek, which flows into Coal Creek — a primary source of water for Crested Butte. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has determined that the levels of arsenic, cadmium and zinc in Coal Creek exceed state standards.

Huckstep requested EPA help testing water in Elk Creek, Coal Creek and in town.

"I want to make sure that the EPA's work is being done in a diligent manner and that their contractors are following the right procedures. We'd like to see these types of events not happen," Huckstep said.

"Obviously, after Gold King, there's a high level of public concern and attention — rightfully so. ... The EPA is willing to come in and do the work. We support that. But we want to make sure that these types of circumstances don't happen."

The local Coal Creek Watershed Coalition began additional water sampling along the waterways "to determine what the impact of the spill was," director Zach Vaughter said.

"While this event is unfortunate, we have a great cooperation and partnership with the EPA working on our watershed. ... From what I understand, they've kept town staff and the coalition in the loop."

The EPA has been working toward installation of a long-planned bulkhead plug inside the mine, an effort to reduce the flow of acidic wastewater leaching cadmium, arsenic, lead and manganese from tailings and tunnels.

How it happened

EPA crew members were drilling a new opening at the mine, parallel to a portal that is partially collapsed. They were using a vacuum truck to siphon water from a waste pond, but the truck "dipped too low," the EPA's statement said, causing grey-colored water from inside the mine and sediment to spill into Elk Creek.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who threatened legal action after the Gold King disaster, said she'll do all she can to protect state resources and hold the EPA responsible.

"Once again the Environmental Protection Agency has apparently endangered Colorado's waterways while drilling at an abandoned mine," Coffman said. "I continue to be concerned that the EPA wants to zealously regulate Colorado's resources but refuses to be accountable for their own activities when they negatively impact our state."

Source

[PSM]

But on a lighter note:

The federal agency that has the job of protecting the environment doesn’t seem to have too much concern for trees, at least the ones cut down to make furniture.

The Environmental Protection Agency over the past decade has spent a whopping $92.4 million to purchase, rent, install and store office furniture ranging from fancy hickory chairs and a hexagonal wooden table, worth thousands of dollars each, to a simple drawer to store pencils that cost $813.57.

The furniture shopping sprees equaled about $6,000 for every one of the agency’s 15,492 employees, according to federal spending data made public by the government watchdog OpenTheBooks.com.

And the EPA doesn’t buy just any old office furniture. Most of the agency’s contracts are with Michigan-based retailer Herman Miller Inc. According to the contracts, the EPA spent $48.4 million on furnishings from the retailer known for its high-end, modern furniture designs.

More here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ture/?page=all

Pat

[Team Sergeant]

We have some serious bottom-feeding scum in our "federal" agencies.

[Hand]

From PSM's link:

The EPA’s problem is not new. In 2003, an internal report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility warned the agency to cut back on spending for fancy furniture.

“The amount of money that [EPA’s office of criminal enforcement, forensics and training] wastes is mind-boggling,” one employee was quoted as saying in the report, adding that the ability of agents to investigate violations is negatively affected by a number of wasteful practices, including “moving and remodeling offices/buying fancy new furniture for the benefit of a favored few.”

Last year, internal emails surfaced from a regional EPA office asking employees to please stop defecating in the hallways.

Those emails followed reports that workers in an Alaska EPA office were caught watching porn at work and another employee at the Washington headquarters posed as a CIA agent.

Those reports prompted the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to scold EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and threatened to hold her in contempt for blocking their investigations into questionable activity.

In 2013, it was revealed that EPA contractors were using a massive warehouse for “secret man caves.”

That same year, a high-level EPA official admitted he stole nearly $900,000 from the government by pretending to work for the CIA in order to skip work for long stretches of time.

“It is not a shock that the same agency which failed to realize that their top paid employee was a no-show for years, even giving him performance bonuses while he didn’t work, is indulging in high-end office furniture. Apparently at the EPA, you need a $750 chair to hide the fact that no one is sitting in it,” said Richard Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government.

Meanwhile, the Wal-Mart website was selling a container to store pencils for just $10.

[Sdiver]

Nooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!
The spill was much worse than what the EPA told us it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya .....

Locals fume as EPA reveals Gold King mine spill much worse than initially stated

The disclosure that the Environmental Protection Agency's toxic spill at an old gold mine in Colorado was far worse than previously stated has unleashed a flood of anger at the agency, which was already facing numerous lawsuits from states and individuals along the affected waterways.

On Thursday, the House Committee on Natural Resources released a damning report on the EPA and its handling of the Gold King Mine disaster last August. The report detailed how the EPA and the Department of the Interior were inaccurate and misleading in their conflicting accounts of the wastewater spill, which the EPA said last week released 880,000 pounds of toxic metals.

“When government actions result in harm, it’s our duty to know who was responsible and why decisions failed. They haven’t been forthcoming in this regard,” Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said in a released statement. “This report peels back one more layer in what many increasingly view as a pattern of deception on the part of EPA and DOI.

"The agencies continue to withhold information requested by the Committee," Bishop's statement continued. "They need to come clean and produce the missing documents.”

The committee’s findings support recent claims made by New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn, who recently asked members of the House agriculture committee to get behind a proposal that calls for a long-term water monitoring plan. Flynn also said before the committee that federal officials are downplaying the effects of the spill.

“The EPA is saying one thing and their own experts say another,” Flynn told FoxNews.com. “Once the color returned to normal [in the rivers], there were those in the EPA that were hoping that this would be swept under the rug.”

New Mexico last month announced its intent to sue the EPA over the spill, in which agency contract workers caused a massive release of toxic wastewater into the Animas while attempting to mitigate pollutants from the shuttered mine.

Some of the metals in the wastewater reached the San Juan River, which the Animas joins in New Mexico, but most settled into the Animas riverbed before that, the EPA said in a preliminary report on the metals.

Utah officials have said some contaminants reached their state, but Friday's report didn't address that.

Metals released in the spill are believed to include cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. Tests done after the spill also found arsenic and lead in the wastewater.

Flynn and others in the Land of Enchantment are concerned about metal levels in the Animas River in the northern part of the state that shares its border with Colorado. The region’s watershed is connected to the Gold King site in Silverton, but New Mexico has more residents living along the Animas, which is used for crops through irrigation ditches, ranching, and even for home use by residents.

“This river literally feeds us and helps the economy in this region,” Flynn says.

Flynn said field-level EPA officials have been helpful, but said "something gets lost in translation once it gets to the leadership level. They would be happy to see this just all go away.”

When reached for comment regarding the matter, EPA spokeswoman Nancy Grantham said in a written statement: “We’re going to take a look at the report and will respond appropriately.”

The EPA says it won't consider the site for Superfund status without the support of state and local officials.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/02/11...ly-stated.html

[ddoering]

The most transparant administration ever.

[mark46th]

If I were to be elected POTUS, I would put Hugh Hewitt in charge of the EPA with the mission of dismantling that agency.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by mark46th

If I were to be elected POTUS, I would put Hugh Hewitt in charge of the EPA with the mission of dismantling that agency.

I'd give the job to Ambush Master. He'd be quicker.

Pat