Durango blindsided by EPA's accidental toxic spill into Animas River
8/9/2015
The Colorado Statesman
The Environmental Protection Agency’s accidental spill of acidic
wastewater last week turned the Animas River into a toxic brew, but to
Ellen Roberts, the polluted waterway running through Durango feels more
like a sick friend.
The Republican state senator spent the last few days alongside the ailing river, first warding away those who tried to raft or swim in it, then watching it change to a mustardy orange, and, finally, just spending time with it. “There are people who live here, they were coming to the river all day yesterday and last night just to see how it was doing,” said Roberts. “People are disturbed, they’re angry, they’re concerned, but they’re really sad. Because this is an integral part of our community.” “At lunch time, I went down and ate my lunch down by the river,” she added. “It doesn’t smell bad. It just looks bad. It looks really bad.” EPA Region 8 administrator Shaun McGrath took responsibility for the accident in a Saturday press call, insisting that the agency was to blame and not the independent contractors working alongside agency employees when the orange goo was unleashed into Cement Creek from the Gold King Mine. He also said he did not know the name of the general contractor hired by the EPA. “Although I don’t have the name yet, I do want to be clear here: our folks, EPA employees, were on the site and directing the contractor work, and EPA takes responsibility for what happened up there,” McGrath said. “I just want to be clear on that point.” There were four workers present Wednesday morning when they accidentally released 1 million gallons of wastewater at about 10:40 a.m. Wednesday from the abandoned, inactive mine near Silverton. Even so, the EPA did not contact local, state or regional officials for another day. On Sunday, the EPA revised upward its estimate from 1 to 3 million gallons. “When the event happened Wednesday, the people on the ground misinterpreted, misread the severity of the impact,” said McGrath. “We believed in the first day that it was going to be a smaller discharge, it was going to be limited to Cement Creek, and, as a result, our response was designed to the impacts we were anticipating.” “We misjudged. And this is something that I’m owning up to,” McGrath said. As a result, his office did not contact Region 6 administrator Ron Curry, who oversees New Mexico, for 24 hours after the spill. “[A]s a result, the message to my colleague Ron Curry was delayed, it was a day delayed, and we do apologize for that,” said McGrath. “On the other side of it, though, as soon as we understood the significance of release, we have ramped up accordingly and have really done the outreach to states, to tribes, to the local governments, to try to be as transparent with information, to get information out as quickly as we can. So that situation has changed.” He said the flow of wastewater from the mine has diminished from 730 gallons per minute to 538 gallons per minute as of Saturday afternoon. The agency has also constructed settling ponds to catch the wastewater as it leaves the breach and treat it with chemicals before it reaches the Animas River. Drinking water supplies have been cut off from Durango to New Mexico as the EPA works to determine what contaminants and heavy metals are in the muck, but McGrath said the impact to the region is likely to endure even after the water is deemed safe to drink and the river is reopened for recreation. “I can’t give you a firm number of days or weeks that it’s going to take. I don’t know,” McGrath said. “This is going to be a long-term impact. The sediment, the metals that are in that sediment are going to settle out to the stream bottom,” he said. “As we have storm surges, as we have flooding events, that sediment can and likely will get kicked back up into the water, and we’re going to have to do ongoing monitoring and then potential closures in the future as well.” Colorado lawmakers issued statements expressing their concern and pledging their support for the cleanup effort, but Republicans also took jabs at the EPA for failing to meet the same high standards of care it requires from private companies. Republican Rep. Scott Tipton said, “There is widespread frustration with the EPA’s initial response and the lack of information coming out of the agency — the poor communication is unacceptable.” “If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them,” Tipton said. “The EPA admits fault, and as such must be accountable and held to the same standard. In the coming days my staff and I will be working to get a full picture of what happened, as well as an answer to a question on many people’s minds: what resources and funds will the EPA dedicate to clean up the site and provide restitution for damages?” In New Mexico, where drinking water supplies are being turned off as the wastewater crosses the state line, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez blasted the EPA for its lack of notice, saying that she had learned of the spill a day after it occured from the Southern Ute Tribe. “Imagine what would happen if a private company caused this waste spill,” said Martinez in a statement. “This was caused by the EPA and the EPA should demand the same of itself as it would of a private business responsible for such a spill, particularly when it comes to making information available to the public and state and local officials," she said. There was a more muted response from Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who sent out a Tweet on Friday saying, “We are working hard to support the @EPA in the Gold King Mine release cleanup. Public safety and environment remain priority for Colorado!” For Durango, the acidic spill could not come at a worse time, shutting down the recreational watercraft and fishing companies that making their living along the Animas River. “This is still the height of our tourist season,” said Roberts. “In the summertime, what we do is we get in the river, whether it’s for fishing, tubing — kids and adults. We’ve got our rafting companies. Someone had told the rafting companies, so, by mid-afternoon, none of them were operating in the water.” Not everyone got word in time. At a packed public meeting Friday in Durango, Roberts said some farmers said “they actually did have some of that water flow from the river into their ditches.” Farmers and ranchers want to know when it will be safe to use the water again for irrigation and livestock. Firefighters want to know if using the contaminated river water to douse fires will gum up their equipment or harm their health. “One woman stood up and said, ‘I’m a restaurant owner. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here. I’m trying to figure out how to serve my customers,’” Roberts said. More public meetings are expected as lab tests on water samples reveal more about the contaminants, including whether significant levels of metals such as arsenic and mercury made it into the river. “I do appreciate that the EPA sent regional administrator here and he opened himself up to the questions of the community and elected officials,” Roberts said. “I appreciate them taking responsibility for what they did. Now, where we really need to focus is, how do we deal with it?” — valrichardson17@gmail.com |
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