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发帖数: 11530 | 1 Thousands of mines with toxic water lie under the West
Associated Press By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
1 hour ago
A warning sign from the city is displayed in front of the Animas River as
orange sludge from a mine spill upstream flows past Berg Park in Farmington,
N.M., Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015. About 1 million gallons of wastewater from
Colorado's Gold King Mine began spilling into the Animas River on
Wednesday when a cleanup crew supervised by the Environmental Protection
Agency accidentally breached a debris dam that had formed inside the mine.
The mine has been inactive since 1923. (Alexa Rogals/The Daily Times via AP)
.
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DENVER (AP) — Beneath the western United States lie thousands of old mining
tunnels filled with the same toxic stew that spilled into a Colorado river
last week, turning it into a nauseating yellow concoction and stoking alarm
about contamination of drinking water.
Though the spill into the Animas River in southern Colorado is unusual for
its size, it's only the latest instance of the region grappling with the
legacy of a centuries-old mining boom that helped populate the region but
also left buried toxins.
Until the late 1970s there were no regulations on mining in most of the
region, meaning anyone could dig a hole where they liked and search for gold
, silver, copper or zinc. Abandoned mines fill up with groundwater and
snowmelt that becomes tainted with acids and heavy metals from mining veins
which can trickle into the region's waterways. Experts estimate there are 55
,000 such abandoned mines from Colorado to Idaho to California, and federal
and state authorities have struggled to clean them for decades. The federal
government says 40 percent of the headwaters of Western waterways have been
contaminated from mine runoff.
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency was trying to staunch leakage
from a gold mine — not worked since 1923 — high in the San Juan mountains
of southern Colorado. But workers moving debris from the mine tunnel
accidentally opened up the passage, leading to a million gallons of sludge
spilling into a creek that carried it into the Animas River. From there the
discharge headed toward the Colorado River, which provides water to tens of
millions of Westerners.
"The whole acid draining issue is something we struggle with in the western
United States," said Bruce Stover, the Colorado Department of Mining
official in charge of dealing with abandoned mines in that state.
One of the complicating factors is money and legal liability. Cleaning up
the mines is very costly, and the Clean Water Act says that anyone who
contributes to pollution of a waterway can be prosecuted for a federal crime
, even if they were trying to clean up pollution. That's kept environmental
groups from helping the EPA treat water and tidy up mines. Groups for
several years have been pushing for a federal law that would let so-called "
Good Samaritan" groups help with cleanup without being exposed to legal
liability.
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Map locates the Animas River, that has been polluted …
Map locates the Animas River, that has been polluted with mine waste; 2c x 3
inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm …
"There's still a whole generation of abandoned mines that needs to be dealt
with," said Steve Kandell of Trout Unlimited, one of the organizations
backing the bill.
But the Wednesday spill from the Gold King mine shows the amount of damage
that the slightest cleanup accident can inflict. The mine is one of four
outside the old mining town of Silverton that have leaked heavy metals into
Cement Creek, which flows into the Animas. Cement Creek is so poisoned that
no fish live there and the EPA has long registered abnormal levels of
acidity and heavy metals in the upper Animas that have also injured aquatic
life.
Downstream, though, the Animas flows through the scenic town of Durango and
is a magnet for summer vacationers, fishermen and rafters. The river turned
yellow Thursday, emitting a sickening stench and sending water agencies
scrambling to shut off the taps from the waterway.
The EPA apologized profusely to residents for both the accident and failing
to warn anyone for the first 24 hours. During a town hall meeting in Durango
on Friday, a restaurant owner asked the EPA if it would compensate
businesses for lost revenue, while officials warned that the river may turn
yellow again in the spring, when snowmelt kicks up the settled contaminated
sediment.
The history of the Gold King and its neighboring mines is also an example of
the difficulty in cleaning up old waste. The EPA had initially tried to
plug a leak in another mine that drained into Cement Creek, the American
Tunnel, but that simply pushed more contaminated water out of the
neighboring mines such as Gold King.
"In this day and age, everyone wants the quick fix, but these things take
time," said Jason Willis, an environmental engineer who works with Trout
Unlimited in Colorado. "These are site-specific tasks."
Stover said it was particularly galling that the Animas was contaminated by
the very chemicals that environmental officials have been trying to remove
from its watershed.
"It's very unfortunate," Stover said. "We've been fighting this war for
years, and we've lost a battle. But we're going to win the war." | W***n
发帖数: 11530 | 2 Sickening sight
been there couple yrs back |
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