Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/12/opinions/pagel-animas-river-pollution/index.html
The real culprit in the Animas River spill
By Lauren Pagel?Updated 12:46 PM ET, Wed August 12, 2015
Editor's Note: Lauren Pagel is the policy director at Earthworks, a national nonprofit advocacy organization focused on protecting communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mining. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.
(CNN)—Last Wednesday, the United States experienced one of its worst hardrock-mining-related disasters in decades, and I wish I could say that I was surprised.
A gold mine that has been inactive since 1920 spilled 3 million gallons of toxic mining waste into the Animas River in Colorado after contractors working for an Environmental Protection Agency cleanup team using heavy equipment accidentally sent it flowing into the waterway. The spill has spread from Colorado into New Mexico and now into Utah -- affecting over 100 river miles.
What the headlines and photos of bright orange rivers fail to convey is that this mine and thousands of others like it across the country perpetually leak this type of mine pollution into our waters.
If there is anything I have learned from the past 15 years of working on this issue, it's that absent strong regulations and better-designed mines, mining companies will continue to pollute with impunity.
Earthworks estimates that there are over 500,000 abandoned and inactive hardrock mines strewn across the country, with a hefty price tag attached to their clean up -- $50 billion, according to an EPA estimate.
Western communities face significant burdens associated with these old mines -- ranging from a disaster from a failed cleanup like the one that occurred last week, to more persistent water pollution issues, and the ever-present danger of improperly secured underground mines that pose a serious threat to public safety. At least 40% of the streams feeding the headwaters of Western watersheds are polluted from mining. That's because many mines -- like Gold King -- have significant acid mine drainage problems, which can persist for thousands of years if left untreated.
Unfortunately, in the 25 years since Earthworks first published our report on the legacy of abandoned mines, not much has changed. The reason for the lack of action is the antiquated law, 143 years old and counting, that still governs hardrock mining on public lands throughout the West.
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the 1872 Mining Law to help settle the West. And even though the West has surely been settled, this law is still on the books -- unchanged. It allows corporations, foreign and domestic, to take public minerals, owned by us, the taxpayers, for free. It contains no environmental provisions, requires no cleanup after mining is over, and unlike the law governing coal mining, does not require hardrock mining companies to pay a fee to clean up the legacy of pollution.
This archaic law is why funds to clean up mines like Gold King remain limited, despite the magnitude of the problem, putting safe drinking water and our healthy environment at risk. A steady stream of long-term funding for hardrock mine cleanup, similar to the coal industry's abandoned mine fee, is essential to dealing with the scope of the problems we face from mine pollution.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, has introduced legislation that would bring mining law into the 21st century. It would charge the mining industry a modest reclamation fee that would generate $200 million per year to fund abandoned mine restoration and create an estimated 13,000 annual jobs. HR 963, the Hardrock Mining Reform and Reclamation Act of 2015, can protect communities, precious water resources and help avert future disasters.
Westerners should stand up and take notice: Our communities are at risk. This is not our first mining disaster and it won't be the last. Until we tackle the root cause of mining pollution and modernize the 1872 mining law, we are gambling away our most precious resource, water.
Nice write-up. Pretty much nails it.
That 1872 Mining Law is pretty brutal. Probably needs to go. There is an upside to that law however. Tell you what though, it is your ticket to free land if you want it out here. You can still claim land out on government lands, all you have to do is say you are going to mine whatever, it could be gravel, and show that you worked it. Even if you dig up a few tons of nothing a year, that land is yours, for free. Pretty cool.
I know a guy who found an amethyst deposit, claimed himself about ten acres right in the National Forest, breaks off maybe a thousand pounds a year, that's all, active mining claim, has a trailer right there, free land.
This is getting weird.
The Environmental groups are going after The EPA.
Of course The EPA enjoys immunity.
Before Colorado mine disaster, EPA project caused spill in Georgia
By Tori Richards - Published August 20, 2015 - watchdog.org
Still reeling from a disaster it created at a Colorado gold mine, the EPA has so far avoided criticism for a similar toxic waste spill in Georgia.
In Greensboro, EPA-funded contractors grading a toxic 19th-century cotton mill site struck a water main, sending the deadly sediment into a nearby creek. Though that accident took place five months ago, the hazard continues as heavy storms -- one hit the area Tuesday -- wash more soil into the creek.
The sediment flows carry dangerous mercury, lead, arsenic and chromium downstream to the Oconee River -- home to many federally and state protected species -- and toward the tourist destination of Lake Oconee.
Lead in the soil is 20,000 times higher than federal levels established for drinking water, said microbiologist Dave Lewis, who was a top-level scientist during 31 years at the Environmental Protection Agency.
He became a whistleblower critical of EPA practices and now works for Focus for Health, a nonprofit that researches disease triggers.
"Clearly, the site is a major hazardous chemical waste dump, which contains many of the most dangerous chemical pollutants regulated by the EPA," Lewis wrote in a 2014 affidavit for a court case filed by local residents that failed to prevent the EPA project: creating a low-income housing development.
Locals fume as EPA reveals Gold King mine spill much worse than initially stated
By Perry Chiaramonte - Published February 11, 2016 - FoxNews.com
The House Committee on Natural Resources released a damning report on the EPA and how they handled the August 2015 Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado, and its aftermath (AP)
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.
“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.”
- Secretary Ryan Flynn, New Mexico Environmental Department
"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.
