EPA says no risk from Colorado river sediments

EPA says no risk from Colorado river sediments

When you add radioactive material to the mix, the potential danger in a spill can rise significantly, says Krill.



The drainage contains iron, manganese and aluminum that degrades water quality in the Lackawanna and Susquehanna rivers and their tributaries.

Many people across the political spectrum endorse some version of conspiracy theory.

In a tragic irony, that’s exactly what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was trying to address when it inadvertently triggered the mine waste spill last week. Once the tablet took effect, he began to drink from the river, about 20 miles south of the spill.

Drilled in 1962, the borehole is an example of creating one problem by solving another.

Of those, 47 abandoned mines have active water treatment programs in place for the water that comes out of them.

“Now there’s a conspiracy theory going on”, she said.

As evidence of this conspiracy, proponents point to a Letter to the Editor published shortly before the spill in a regional Colorado newspaper written by a retired geologist which seems to predict that the EPA is up to something nefarious. EPA expects no significant impacts to Lake Powell associated with the Gold King Mine release.

The crush of orange filth pouring through the Animas River should be a wake up call to this generation of lawmakers about how to balance profitable extraction and the need for responsible environmental protection.

A local environmentalist suggested McCarthy’s next stop could be a flight over Pittston. But there are no fish downstream from Silverton, he said. Cleanup efforts continue at a price tag of $5 million a year, with no end in site.

“For nearly a week, a torrent of toxic sludge – the color of hot mustard and rife with poisonous metals – has been flowing through Colorado, Utah and New Mexico”.

SIMON: I understand the determination as to how and what happened has to be made after considerable investigation in the future, but can you see where a local community would now be concerned if a contractor showed up and said, we’re here to clear up that mine site; don’t worry, we’re from the EPA? EPA’s review of data indicates metals concentrations in sediment are generally consistent with pre-release levels. DeAnne Gallegos, director of the Silverton Area Chamber of Commerce, ruefully said that the financial pain caused by families canceling trips in light of the pollution had been offset by the influx of media and EPA employees. “Hindsight is 20/20”, he said, before adding: “These aren’t necessarily my views”. For the Lackawanna, mine drainage joins urban stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows as causes for the river’s continued impairment.

“It is a reminder of the importance of clean water in our rivers and streams”, she said.

“We shouldn’t be doing it from Washington”, he said. It flowed into Cement Creek, poisoning that once-fertile waterway, and, from there, into the Animas. “We’ve been at it for two decades”. We’re not just jumping into things. There are 230 total known abandoned mines in Colorado that are discharging water on CDPHE’s map.

“It will not be fixed”, he said.

Even if “there is a contaminant detected in the CAP”, he added, “we always have the ability to simply not take the water”.

“But I might lose readers”, he said.

Nathanson said at other times of the year, when the water table has dropped, water from the river does move the other way – from the river toward the wells. Many sections of the river supports enough wild, naturally reproducing trout to support sport fishing without stocking.

In western Arizona – where the Central Arizona Project draws drinking water from the Colorado River – officials said they were confident any threat from contamination would be diluted by the time it got that far. Wildlife, animals, fish and, oh yes, people must not touch this water.

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