'EPA-caused Love Canal' poisons rivers from Colorado to Utah

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with protecting us from those that would seek to pollute our vast network of waterways. But who protects us when it’s the EPA’s fault? As reported by the NY Times yesterday, an EPA crew caused an alphabetic soup of toxic elements to flow into the Animas River, turning the pristine waters into a mustard-yellow sludge. The agency, which was “investigating a worsening acid discharge from Gold King and three other mines,” triggered the toxic torrent from a mixture of poor judgment, little planning, and the use of a heavy digging machine.

EPA’s on-site coordinator, Hays Griswold, said it all started when they were exploring where they could put in a pipe that could drain the rising waters inside the mine. “We had found the hard rock I wanted to find overhead,” Griswold told the Denver Post. “All of a sudden, there was a little spurt from the top.” The spurt quickly turned into a deluge when it blew through the loose dirt that “acted as a barrier between the collapsing mine portal and waterways.” The bright orange wave cascaded down into Cement Creek, which empties into the Animas River (an early tributary of the Colorado River).

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