YOUR MONEY: EPA brings its own relevance into doubt in wake of Animas River disaster
Monday, August 24, 2015
By Marjorie Haun | Watchdog Arena
Photo by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?: From spill to clean up to compensation the EPA has bumbled its way through its responsibilities, bringing into question its own ability.
Colorado is one of the richest states in the country, with immense deposits of gold, silver, and other precious minerals, gems, and fossil fuel under its dirt. Colorado’s legacy of mining has left its mark, and occasional wastewater discharge from abandoned mines, many older than the Centennial State itself, has been eyed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a critical priority. Nevertheless, because of containment, relatively small volumes of dissolved heavy metals, and quick dilution in bodies of water, leakage from old mines has rarely resulted in environmental disasters, until the EPA got involved.
The EPA became the focus of controversy when, on Aug. 5, a mine safety team working on behalf of the D.C.-based federal agency, breached a structural “plug” in the historical Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. The ensuing release of over 3 million gallons of toxic sludge turned the downstream Animas River bright orange, affecting people, livestock, wildlife and vegetation in three states. The detrimental handling of the effort, and halting response by the EPA, left citizens and officials in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, frustrated and grasping for answers.
Public mistrust of the EPA and its processes is a matter of experience. Although EPA officials from the areas affected by the Animas River Spill spoke to the press in a week following the disaster, little information was provided regarding environmental impact assessments or mitigation plans. The only apparent response to vast damage was to provide a claims form for “Damage, Injury, and Death” on a website specifically dedicated to the Animas River issue. That claim form has since been removed.
Leaders of the Navajo Nation found the EPA response to the damage of their critical watershed to be so abysmal that they have mounted a lawsuit against the agency. Following the release of toxic sludge into the Animas River, EPA officials warned Navajo farmers and livestock owners not to use river water for irrigation or livestock.
The EPA promised to haul in food for livestock and water for human and animal consumption. The Navajos near Shiprock, New Mexico waited a week for the first shipments of hay to arrive, and will have to deal with removing contaminants from irrigation water obtained from the San Juan river, into which the Animas river feeds, for months, and perhaps years to come.
According to the Denver Post , Navajo Nation President Russel Begaye claims the EPA, “endangered our people.” Begaye wants the agency to remove all contaminated sediment from the San Juan River, and fully pay for the emergency response and ruin that has been brought to people like Roy Etcitty, a Navajo from Shiprock, NM who had his crops decimated.
“The U.S. government isn’t going to come through,” Etcitty told the Denver Post. “They never come through.” Etcitty has ceased watering his crops since the San Juan River was closed by officials. His horses have also been prohibited from drinking the water.
Begaye recently met with EPA Chief Gina McCarthy when she visited Durango, Colorado and Farmington. “We wanted some solid commitments,” Begaye told the Post, “but we didn’t get that.”
The EPA’s history of mismanagement and dishonesty stretches beyond the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. An Aug. 17 article by Watchdog.org’s Tori Richards revealed the EPA has a record that goes back to 2005 of dumping—and hiding—toxic waste. According to Richards:
The 3-million-gallon heavy-metal spill two weeks ago in Silverton polluted three states and touched off national outrage. But the EPA escaped public wrath in 2005 when it secretly dumped up to 15,000 tons of poisonous waste into another mine 124 miles away. That dump – containing arsenic, lead and other materials – materialized in runoff in the town of Leadville, said Todd Hennis, who owns both mines along with numerous others.
The article continues:
“If a private company had done this, they would’ve been fined out of existence,” Hennis said. “I have been battling the EPA for 10 years and they have done nothing but create pollution. About 20 percent (of Silverton residents) think it’s on purpose so they can declare the whole area a Superfund site.”
The EPA’s slow responses and obfuscation have been called out by the state’s Attorney General, Cynthia Coffman, who in joining other Attorneys General in considering a multi-state lawsuit against the agency.
EPA chief, McCarthy has had to defend the mission of her agency in Colorado, where the EPA has been a wrecking ball. Facing calls for congressional investigations of the Animas debacle, the agency is also having to defend its new carbon rules, ozone rules, mercury rules, and methane rules which threaten numerous power plants and related industries and thousands of jobs in Colorado.
The EPA also has a role in the Interior Department’s war on the Colowyo Coal mine in northwestern Colorado. An article in the Durango Herald dated Aug. 14 makes the case that the EPA is culpable in that controversy as well. It states:
The mine is scheduled for closure by order of a federal court, unless the Interior department submits an environmental review by Sept. 6 considering the impact of the facility’s carbon emissions on the environment. The order came after a lawsuit by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.
According to the EPA, the Colowyo mine had 34 Clean Water Act violations when it was inspected in 2007.
The EPA as proven to be of little help in assessing the impact of its actions, or funding cleanup efforts in areas affected by the Animas River spill. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, assisted by the San Juan Basin Health Department took charge of assessing water quality in the days following the toxic sludge spill. Sheriff Sean Smith used the information provided by those agencies to declare the Animas safe for recreational use on Friday, Aug. 14.
According to the Wall Street Journal article, Colorado and New Mexico were quick to allocate millions in state funds to be disbursed for cleanup efforts in affected areas. After the EPA spill, governors of those states declared emergencies. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez is cited:
“I had the chance to see the spill with my own eyes. It is absolutely devastating, and I am heartbroken by this environmental catastrophe,” said New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, adding she was concerned about the EPA’s “lack of communication.”
Since the 2014 standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management, movement has been afoot in several states, including Utah, Idaho, Montana and Nevada, to transfer management authority over public lands and resources from the federal government to state governments. All states with property west of the Continental Divide are subject to ownership and management by the federal government and its agencies, such as the EPA, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and U.S. Forest Service.
The EPA’s inept track record and latest actions resulting in the Animas River disaster, however, reveal that the people, economy and very environment of Colorado may be more secure in the hands of state control.
This article was written by a contributor of Watchdog Arena, Franklin Center’s network of writers, bloggers, and citizen journalists.
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