EPA accidentally dumps 3 million gallons of mining waste into river
13 replies, posted
[quote]FARMINGTON, N.M. — Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday that the Gold King Mine discharged an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated water, three times the amount previously believed.
The mine continues to discharge 500 gallons per minute, EPA Region 8 administrator Shaun McGrath said in a teleconference call Sunday afternoon, but the polluted water is being contained and treated in two ponds by the site of the spill near Silverton, Colo.
According to preliminary testing data the EPA released Sunday, [B]arsenic levels in the Durango area of the Animas River were, at their peak, 300 times the normal level, and lead was 3,500 times the normal level. Officials said those levels have dropped significantly since the plume moved through the area.[/B]
Both metals pose a significant danger to humans at high levels of concentration.
"Yes, those numbers are high and they seem scary," said Deborah McKean, chief of the Region 8 Toxicology and Human Health and Risk Assessment. "But it's not just a matter of toxicity of the chemicals, it's a matter of exposure."[/quote]
[url]http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/09/navajo-nation-epa-spill/31384515/[/url]
Video in source.
From CNN:
[quote]According to the EPA, the spill occurred when one of its teams was using heavy equipment to enter the Gold King Mine, a suspended mine near Durango. Instead of entering the mine and beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.[/quote]
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/10/us/colorado-epa-mine-river-spill/[/url]
Well that's a huge blunder. Hopefully it doesn't have any lasting effects.
I'm not sure I would be quick to "blame" the EPA in this case even if they are the ones who in the end triggered the breach. from what I can tell there was way more water in that portal than they were expecting, which is an issue in and of itself. It likely would have failed on its own given time. More the issue in the grand scheme of things is figuring out a proper chain of action in order to mitigate future burst acid rock drainage events. As it stands there really isn't anyone "responsible" for the cleanup of tens of thousands of sites across the western US, as the mines were excavated and abandoned long before environmental law was even a twinkle in the US gov's eye. If I had to guess will probably take 50+ billion in funds to extensively clean many sites and prevent events such as this from happening more often. Similar events aren't too rare, though they don't always end like the gold king mine.
[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28leadville.html?_r=0"]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28leadville.html?_r=0[/URL]
Leadville is a similar district to Silverton, heavily mined from the 1870s through the 1920s. Mix mountain snowmelt headwaters with oxidized sulfide rock and you get a nice sulfuric acid leach solution that takes all the heavy metals out of the rock as it drains through the mountain and eventually into the watershed. These massive water events happen when back in the day they decided to plug the mine portal with backfill or sometimes later concrete, thus creating a nice cork that allows the acid water that normally would drain straight out the portal to accumulate, sometimes in huge amounts. They managed to do some work on that site in Leadville to have a proper treat and release setup, only one of thousands though.
Another particularly colorful story:
[URL="http://www.reporterherald.com/ci_18904807"]http://www.reporterherald.com/ci_18904807[/URL]
Water blasting out of a 5x5 tunnel for a few hours kinda gives an idea how much water likes to drain through these tunnels.
A before/after of the Animas River
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL3MPDqVAAA0HO3.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE=nintenman1;48426485]I'm not sure I would be quick to "blame" the EPA in this case even if they are the ones who in the end triggered the breach. [/QUOTE]
this is an incredibly informed opinion. politicians will use this as fodder to jump on the EPA, even to go so far as to suggest some kind of privatized agency where the government funnels huge amounts of cash to them so they can be contracted to cleanup these waste sites
So, will the EPA fine the EPA for this? What will happen to the people who did it?
[QUOTE=Dougz;48426788]A before/after of the Animas River
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL3MPDqVAAA0HO3.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
holy shit
[QUOTE=Dougz;48426788]A before/after of the Animas River
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL3MPDqVAAA0HO3.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
That makes me purely enraged
Mining companies have caused countless civilian fatalities from contamination, including mutating people too. hopefully this won't hurt anyone.
Do they plan on doing anything about this, or is it just gonna be looked at like an 'accident'? Even then the company still needs to pay
[QUOTE=Blue Meanie;48427507]That makes me purely enraged
Mining companies have caused countless civilian fatalities from contamination, including mutating people too. hopefully this won't hurt anyone.
Do they plan on doing anything about this, or is it just gonna be looked at like an 'accident'? Even then the company still needs to pay[/QUOTE]
Why the hell should the company pay? Did you read the article at all? The EPA was supposed to pump it out but instead the dumped it into the river.
[QUOTE=Ridge;48427307]So, will the EPA fine the EPA for this? What will happen to the people who did it?[/QUOTE]
If I understand the article correctly, the EPA has either moved or is attempting to move this site to the highest priority level, which would free up more federal funds (which were already allocated to the EPA but weren't already assigned) to tackle the spill. So... technically yes?
The states involved as well as the Navajo Nation are all supposedly taking action as well, although the Navajo are also suing the EPA to get reimbursed. As for what will happen to the people who caused the accident, we'll probably see an investigation, just like when that DC metro train derailed a few months ago.
[QUOTE=Blue Meanie;48427507]That makes me purely enraged
Mining companies have caused countless civilian fatalities from contamination, including mutating people too. hopefully this won't hurt anyone.
Do they plan on doing anything about this, or is it just gonna be looked at like an 'accident'? Even then the company still needs to pay[/QUOTE]
Don't worry, I don't think either of those chemicals carry much risk of mutation. Exposure will just outright kill you instead. [img]http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-suicide.gif[/img]
Also holy fuck that picture. Hopefully the amount of damage caused isn't irreversible but that does not look good.
[QUOTE=Dougz;48426788]A before/after of the Animas River
[t]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL3MPDqVAAA0HO3.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
This is pretty much how any river looks after it has rained for a greater amount of time, it says nothing.
[QUOTE=Doom64hunter;48437697]This is pretty much how any river looks after it has rained for a greater amount of time, it says nothing.[/QUOTE]
But when it rains, there is an increase in fluid being moved around. The fast motion of the water combined with runoff is what creates the muddy water, and since it's going faster, it also clears up quickly. This dump didn't increase water flow, it just contaminated the water, probably with loads of iron (from the color) and other proprietary mine chems.
As you'd learn in any chem lab, just because something looks like water doesn't mean it is water. And just because this looks like muddy water doesn't mean the two states are comparable.
I wonder if there's been any fish die-off from this.
This kind of environmental fuck up happens too often
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