EPA Knew of 'Blowout' Risk at Colorado Gold Mine on Animas River: Report

[Celebration]

Source: NBC News

Internal documents released late Friday show managers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were aware of the potential for a catastrophic "blowout" at an abandoned mine that could release "large volumes" of wastewater laced with toxic heavy metals.

EPA released the documents following weeks of prodding from The Associated Press and other media organizations. EPA and contract workers accidentally unleashed 3 million gallons of contaminated wastewater on Aug. 5 as they inspected the idled Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.

..............

Much of the text in the documents released Friday was redacted by EPA officials. Among the items blacked out is the line in a 2013 safety plan for the Gold King job that specifies whether workers were required to have phones that could work at the remote site, which is more than 11,000 feet up a mountain.

EPA did not immediately respond Friday night to questions from the AP.



Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/epa-knew-blowout-risk-colorado-gold-mine-animas-river-report-n414211

---

Makes you wonder if the EPA didn't have its own agenda here. Why would they redact like that? They should be open to investigation.

I do know that some geologists predicted that this would happen.....before it occurred.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. The EPA's first response to the Navajo was to try to get them to sign papers....

....promising they wouldn't sue.

After that the trust level went to zero.

[greatlaurel]

9. Please provide a link to a source for this information, please.

Thank you.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Heard it on NPR....

The Navajo say it's difficult to trust the EPA when agency workers spent much of last week handing out forms to the farmers that would essentially waive their rights to sue the federal government for future damages.

The Navajo president said in a statement, "The Feds are protecting themselves at the expense of the Navajo people and it is outrageous."

http://www.npr.org/2015/08/17/432600254/navajo-nation-farmers-feel-the-weight-of-colorado-mine-spill

[Quixote1818]

2. So what were they suposed to do?

Just leave it and let it continue to leak slowly into the river and eventually blow out on its own? Actually, water quality is now back to normal and before the blow out there were zero fish near the headwaters where the slow leaking was occurring. It may have looked bad but in reality things will end up better off once it is completely cleaned up and isn't leaking into the small headwater creeks.

[former9thward]

17. Would you be this forgiving if it was a mining company

that caused the accident?

[CreekDog]

23. It was a mining company that caused it

[former9thward]

31. Wrong again.

The EPA said they caused it. You should get ahold of their press office immediately since you have different information.

[CreekDog]

36. Who produced the mine waste?

It came from mining activities, no? Or are you saying the government operated a mine back in the 1920s?

Whatever your answer is, it's pretty clear that no matter what, the only one you will look to blame is the government. No if ands or buts, once you do that, you have done what you come to DU to do.

[former9thward]

37. To your utter dismay the EPA said they caused the accident.

Get to the EPA press office immediately to correct their false information.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Notice to those who continue to slam the EPA.

The failure appears to be with the PRIVATE CONTRACTOR handling the job. Typical FUBAR,got to protect the money interests and to hell with the Governmental Personnel. Looking at the Ariel Photo,the contractor sure as hell did not build out their retention ponds to prevent the outside chance of a major water surge. Lets just do this on the cheap and if something goes to hell in a hand basket,blame some guy or gal at the EPA or BLM,CYA baby.

[They_Live]

7. Any more info about the private contractor?

Just curious, because I've heard this brought up a few times, but specifics are elusive. I'd really like to know more.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. You can about guess whom ever carried the contract

is Politically connected and the real name will surface soon. Hopefully by Monday. Hope Mr. Begaye drops the hammer on these people. Got a hunch this is the same bunch of clowns that were given the contract to clean up the Uranium Tailing's Pile in Moab,UT. Name sounded and appeared to be the same.

[Agony]

20. Missouri-based Environmental Restoration LLC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1177436

If you find out more I'd like to know, haven't had time to follow up on this

Agony

[Wellstone ruled]

30. Fenton,MO home base.

Just won a 107 million change order to be EPA on call service. Which Politician comes from Fenton,Mo.,there in lies the answer. This smells to high hell. EPA takes the fall,that way the Contractor skates,seen this crap in Military Equipment Sub-Contracting for parts and sub-assemblies,if our parts for some reason fell apart or broke causing damage or a fatal,we were indemnified. The Pentagon had our backs as we got the money. BTW,we made big bucks doing work arounds on military hardware,so much money just sloshing around in the Military Industrial Complex,plain stupid.

[Zorra]

8. Great point. Privatization is deadly in so many ways. Privatization of government

services is always a hazard to the people in some way.

The primary goal of private profit interests performing tasks contracted to them by government is profit. Performing quality service, and ensuring the well being of human beings, are always secondary, if they are even a consideration of the private enterprise at all.

For the sake of the public safety, security, and well being, privatization of any and all government services should be made illegal, and all government contracts already made with private profit interests to perform government services should be declared null and void in the interest of protecting the people.

[mike_c]

35. government control cannot stop oxidation....

The only way to prevent acid mine drainage is to never ever mine in hard rock. The existing damage cannot be effectively mitigated.

[former9thward]

16. A private contractor supervised by EPA personnel.

And doing what the EPA wanted them to do. They were not out there on their own.

[They_Live]

18. But the contractor was hired to do the work, right?

or are you saying that the EPA was doing the work and contractor bears no responsibility?

[former9thward]

22. The EPA has accepted total responsibility for the accident.

Did you forget that?

[They_Live]

27. No, but I have noticed

that the EPA has been under attack for quite some time by the polluting corporations for hampering their profits.

[former9thward]

32. And what does that have to do with this specific incident?

That's right. Nothing.

[They_Live]

33. Thanks for the one sided conversation

the focus is on the EPA screwing up and not the problem that we all will have to deal with caused by industry 100 years ago to present day. Why are you so aggressive? I feel like I am being shouted down with your every reply.

[24601]

25. You have been misled if you believe that the Federal Government has a workforce that does

everything in-house. Civilian pay and military pay accounts for an extremely small part of the federal budget. Most of it purchases goods and services.

While there are government medical health care facilities, particularly for the military and veterans, even those include large numbers of contractors. But the vast majority of federal health care dollars are paid to private sector providers. You don't walk down the street and go into a Medicare or Medicaid facility and be seen by government employee doctors, nurses, pharmacists, techs, etc.

In WWII, the Manhattan project was the closest thing to the government actually producing anything. Every tank, plane, ship, uniform was built by the private sector. The difference was effective oversight & supervision. Today, DoD manufactures very little.

When NASA entered the space race and continuing today, government employees did not build one booster, capsule or shuttle.

There are rare exceptions. Money, for example, is printed by US Treasury employees, but the paper used is supplied by a contractor under close oversight and control.

Federal, state and local law enforcement, not necessarily facility guards - but real LE with police powers, tend to be government employees. I have seen a lot of criticism about LE the past year.

There are laws (especially procurement law) & federal regulations that cover "inherently governmental" functions that cannot be performed by anyone but Government Employees or the Uniformed Military.

Here's the link to President Obama's Policy on contracting: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/memorandum-heads-executive-departments-and-agencies-subject-government-contracting

[Sunlei]

4. 22,000 abandoned mines, this one was closed in 1927? There were no regulations at that time.

The lingering effects are also noticeable in the area’s waterways, which were suffering even before this latest breach. According to the Herald, three of the four fish species in the Upper Animas water basin (which includes Cement Creek and drains into the Animas River) disappeared between 2005 and 2010. Five years after that, the river was completely devoid of fish.

Insects and bird species have also fared poorly. And tests of the water flowing into Bakers Bridge, about three dozen miles south of Silverton, found that it carried concentrations of zinc toxic to animals. U.S. Geological Survey Scientists told the paper that the area was the largest untreated drainage site in the state.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/10/what-the-epa-was-doing-when-it-sent-yellow-sludge-spilling-into-a-colorado-creek/

[blackspade]

5. What is the reason for the redaction?

Are they going to claim 'national security?'

[Celebration]

6. yes that is what got my attention!

Redaction??? That makes no sense whatsoever!

Why the coverup?

I am not making accusations, but the redaction pretty much smells to high heaven. If they screwed up (and obviously there was a screwup somewhere) then let the chips fall where they may.

[Quixote1818]

12. They admited they screwed up on day one

Think that is the first time I have ever seen anyone in Gov. take responsibility for such a huge mistake that quickly. To be honest I was taken back that they took responsibility and were apologizing that quickly, without pressure.

[Psephos]

21. A mealy-mouthed apologia that had to be fortified after public outcry. n/t

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Link to the EPA

Emergency Response to August 2015 Release from Gold King Mine

[greatlaurel]

13. Redacting is common practice in documents relating to ongoing legal actions and proprietary content.

The writer of this piece is very sloppy. Either they did not ask why the information was redacted or wrote this in a way to put the USEPA in a bad light. It would be worth calling or emailing USEPA to ask that very question, why was this information redacted? I fault USEPA for releasing the information on a Friday afternoon, but it could be they just got it all ready to be released that day. Much of the stuff that can be made to look nefarious is really just the normal operation of the bureaucracy which is actually in place to make sure staff are doing their jobs.

In dealing with the news media and the public, redacting sensitive information relating to ongoing legal actions, enforcement and proprietary company information is a standard practice. The documents would have to go through legal review between the time of the public information request and the time of the documents were released to the public. The writer of this article exposes their anti-government bias with the statement "EPA released the documents following weeks of prodding from The Associated Press and other media organizations." Getting documents reviewed in 17 days after the spill is lightning speed to get all the documents found, then reviewed by the legal staff, copied and sent.

I was listening to the local Nice Polite Republican radio station a week or so ago and they were interviewing a local fishing guide from Durango. I will try to find a link He stated he had seen slugs of contaminated water come through the Animas River several times over the many years he had lived there. All these mines are leaking into the headwaters of the Animus and are releasing lower levels of contaminants into these waters continuously. It would be appropriate for people to be outraged by the owners of these mines who have not been held accountable as well as at the public and private interests around Silverton who opposed the Superfund designation for these mines preventing a better system for collecting and treating the releases of pollution from these mines. These mines are going to leak as long as water is leaking into them. Research into how to stop water infiltrating through these mines is needed. There are thousands of miles of dead streams and rivers throughout the US due to acid mine drainage. The Appalachian region is particularly cursed with the massive degradation of streams and rivers by the tens of billions of gallons of acid mine drainage coming from the abandoned coal mines. Because it is basically unseen and unreported the loss of plant and animal diversity is not discussed until it happens in a spectacular way like this big release. Acid mine drainage adds thousands of tons of heavy metals into surface waters across the US every year. I wish more reporters would write articles about that problem.

[Wellstone ruled]

15. Noticed the same yellow plumes two years ago

when we were in Silverton. One local shop keeper said that this was a common thing and it was leaking out of the Gold King. Claimed the leaks were due to the recent heavy rains that were flushing the sludge out the temporary Mine Entrance Plug. This sludge will be flushed into Powell and Mead next Spring and Summer after the snow melt.

This whole thing and many others to come can be avoided by funding the clean-up and plugging these abandoned mines. Surety Bonds have to be mandated by the BLM for mine remediation.

[marlakay]

19. After book I read on Rocky flats and EPA

In Colorado I don't trust them a bit.

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Celebration.

[The Jungle 1]

26. Pa coal mines

The coal barons gave Pa a lot of abandoned mines and a lot of pollution. We have more than 4,000 miles of streams are effectively dead from abandoned mines the coal barons left us. Yes that is right 4000 miles. (Foundation for Pennsylvania Watershed)
Soon we will have thousands of fracked gas wells that will also fail at some point and provide us with more pollution.
Kinda makes ya wonder don't it.

[AngryAmish]

28. Will anyone go to jail? Will anyone be fired?

[Sunlei]

29. Our Gov. should take over the Gold Mining Corps assets, just like the IRS took over the Nevada

'chicken ranch'.

Use their Corp. bank accounts and sale of assets to pay to clean and control their mess.

[mike_c]

34. something that's lost in the discussion about this spill...

...is that the volume of water released-- some 3 million or so gallons-- is about one week's worth of acid mine discharge from any one of a dozen or so abandoned hard rock mines that drain into Cement Creek, the tributary of the Animas River where the spill occurred. Discharge volume alone isn't the most meaningful statistic, but it is worth noting that more acid mine drainage than this spill enters the channel every single week. Cement Creek is dead-- has been for many years. The yellowboy pulse was concentrated in this spill, which made good photos, but thousands of old mines discharge this much acid drainage constantly throughout the country. There is no way to stop it.

on edit: I changed the last sentence so there would be no ambiguity about whether acid mine drainage can be effectively mitigated. It cannot, at least nowhere near the scale of the problem.