XPost: alt.politics.obama, sci.engr.mining, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: eljones@heavy.com   
      
   Government officials from New Mexico and the Navajo Nation were   
   among those working through the weekend to try to understand and   
   respond to the Environmental Protection Agency’s inadvertent   
   triggering of the spill of an estimated 3 million gallons of   
   toxic waste into the Animas River last week.   
      
   Wired has a succinct summary of how we got here:   
      
   It’s a classic case of good intentions backfiring. The abandoned   
   mines in the area have long been a problem, filling up with   
   acidic wastewater that leaches heavy metals out of rock and   
   leaks into the river—a slow-motion environmental debacle. And   
   the EPA has been trying to designate the mines a Superfund site   
   for years, only to come up against local resistance. The mines   
   still aren’t on the Superfund list, but the EPA has been trying   
   to them clean up anyway. That’s why a crew was digging around   
   the Gold King Mine — they starting to investigate leaks when the   
   mine’s plug blew, turning the slow-motion problem into a fast-   
   moving, highly visible advertisement for fixing the problem.   
   “It’s hard being on the other side of this,” said Dave   
   Ostrander, the regional EPA director of emergency preparedness,   
   at a public meeting on Friday afternoon. “We typically respond   
   to emergencies; we don’t cause them.”   
      
   The spill occurred along the Animas River in Southwestern   
   Colorado, which flows through Northwestern New Mexico near Aztec   
   and into the San Juan River. The water then flows through the   
   Navajo Nation as part of the Colorado River system that provides   
   water to much of Arizona and Southern California.   
      
   Officials in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation have urged people   
   to stay away from the rivers while the contamination flows   
   through. Both governments are conducting their own tests to   
   determine the severity of the disaster.   
      
   N.M. Gov. Susana Martinez said the EPA failed to notify the   
   state about the spill for 24 hours. State officials are highly   
   critical of the federal agency.   
      
   “We will not allow EPA to leave until they have compensated us,”   
   N.M. Environment Department Cabinet Secretary Ryan Flynn said   
   during a town hall meeting, according to the Farmington Daily   
   Times.   
      
   New Mexico’s congressman representing that area, Democrat Ben   
   Ray Luján, also criticized the EPA’s response during a weekend   
   meeting, according to the newspaper.   
      
   “There’s a lot of questions that our constituents have, and so   
   many communities have as well, that we need to get rapid   
   responses to,” the Daily Times quoted him as saying.   
      
   Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye announced Sunday that the   
   Navajo Nation was making cleanup plans and preparing lawsuits   
   against the Gold King Mine, where the spill occurred, and the   
   EPA.   
      
   “We are going to be suing for millions, billions of dollars,”   
   the Navajo Times quoted Begaye as saying. “…We are going to make   
   EPA pay for this.”   
      
   ‘Thank you EPA’   
      
   Though many said the mine shares blame for the pollution, much   
   of the anger in a discussion NMPolitics.net facilitated on   
   Facebook was aimed at the EPA.   
      
   “Thank you EPA,” former state Rep. Kathy McCoy of Albuquerque   
   wrote. “If a private company had done this, they’d be jailed and   
   fined within minutes.”   
      
   “This is your crack government professionals at work,” wrote   
   Mike Johnson of Santa Fe.   
      
   Not all were quick to express anger. “The EPA now must be   
   completely open and hide nothing,” Michael Swickard of Las   
   Cruces wrote. “I’m not mad that an accident did happen, but if   
   the EPA gives us attitude or they BS us, I will be angry.”   
      
   Many joined the Martinez Administration in expressing   
   frustration about the EPA’s lack of information gathering and/or   
   sharing about the spill.   
      
   Claudia Anderson of Farmington said the San Juan River runs   
   along her property. She wrote on Facebook that her “biggest beef   
   is the lack of timely information.” She was worried about   
   wildlife.   
      
   “We keep part of the property wild as sanctuary, and I’ve got   
   turkeys and deer and raccoons and heaven only knows what else   
   who drink out of that river,” Anderson wrote.   
      
   Officials were scrambling, without solid information, to keep   
   people and animals safe. Among Begaye’s words to people on the   
   Navajo Nation, according to the Navajo Times: Stay out of the   
   San Juan River. Keep livestock from drinking the water. Avoid   
   using the river water.   
      
   The Durango Herald on Sunday published an article about “cause   
   for optimism:” Days after the spill, there haven’t been massive   
   fish or insect die-offs.   
      
   Effects ‘will be felt for months’   
      
   Later Sunday the EPA upped its estimate of the spill’s size from   
   1 million gallons to 3 million. And one thing is certain, the   
   Durango Herald reported in a separate article:   
      
   The effects of the environmental disaster will be felt for   
   months. The high-water mark left from the pulse of toxic waste   
   deposited a yellow-orange film along large swaths of the Animas   
   River. As the murky water traveled 50 miles from Silverton, it   
   tumbled over rocks that kept it stirred. By the time it arrived   
   in the Animas Valley near Dalton Ranch, the river slowed, which   
   gave minerals a chance to settle on the riverbed. High-water run-   
   off events are expected to stir those sediments and cloud the   
   river during the weeks and months to come.   
      
   And from Wired:   
      
   The EPA is working to stop the flow into the river by building a   
   retention pond next to the mine. But the contaminants already in   
   the water? There’s nothing to do — except wait for the muck to   
   sink or dilute down. The Bureau of Reclamation is releasing more   
   water from the Navajo Dam to dilute the toxic metals. But spring   
   runoff next year might stir up contaminants that have sunk to   
   the river bottom all over again.   
      
   Carol Miller of Ojo Sarco wrote on Facebook that the spill is a   
   symptom of a larger problem.   
      
   “The real cause of this was the company or companies that mined   
   and profited from the ore and walked away from the mess, not   
   even attempting remediation,” she wrote. “The heavy metals sink   
   to the bottom and the river and stream banks even as the   
   contamination is diluted. Every time there are rains, snowmelt   
   and/or high water the toxins will be re-suspended. This is a   
   long-term disaster that isn’t over when the river again runs   
   clear.”   
      
   Video   
      
   Here’s video from the Durango Herald of the contamination   
   flowing into the river:   
      
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faTNIWP3qaE   
      
   http://www.nmpolitics.net/index/2015/08/officials-pledge-to-make-   
   the-epa-pay-for-animas-river-spill/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)