EPA Accident Leaves Communities with 90 Day Water Supply

By now you’ve probably heard all about the 1 million gallons of toxic waste that was dumped into the Animas River in Colorado, as well as the fact that the EPA was responsible for the disaster. One of their teams had entered an abandoned mine with the intention of figuring out how to remove the waste, but instead accidentally caused it to spill heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury into the environment.

However, you may not have heard some of the latest developments. For starters, it may be even worse than the EPA first reported. The USGS has estimated that it was 3 million, not 1 million gallons of toxic waste. In addition, the waste has since made its way into New Mexico, where furious residents have criticized the EPA for not warning them sooner. They rely on the river for drinking water, and the cities of Farmington and Aztec have had to cut the river’s access to treatment plants, leaving them with a 90 day supply of potable water. New Mexico State Engineer Tom Blaine backed the claims of residents, saying that the EPA gave them no warning, and failed to alert the state government.

The EPA has since taken several samples from the river, and has found excessive levels of heavy metals. The arsenic levels alone are 800 times higher than the acceptable limit in some places. We won’t know how damaged the environment is until the waste clears on its own, but it’s safe to say that some parts of the Animas River will be dead zones after this.

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Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple.

Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .