Thursday, October 22, 2015

APNewsBreak: EPA mine spill could have been prevented

Steve Way, on-scene coordinator for the EPA, stands in front of the new facility on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, north of Silverton, Colo., that will treat water coming out of the Gold King Mine by adding lime to raise the pH before separating solids from liquids. Way said the treated water will be released into Cement Creek. (Steve Lewis/Durango Herald via AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Government investigators squarely blame the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a 3 million gallon wastewater spill from a Colorado gold mine, saying a cleanup crew rushed its work and failed to consider the complex engineering involved, triggering the very blowout it hoped to avoid.

The Interior Department probe concludes that the spill that fouled rivers in three states would have been avoided had the EPA team checked on water levels before digging into the mine.

The Associated Press obtained the investigation’s findings on the Aug. 5 spill prior to their public release on Thursday. The 132-page report has implications across the United States, where hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines have yet to be cleaned up.

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Source: businessinsider.com

APNewsBreak: EPA mine spill could have been prevented