To Help With Cleanup, EPA Adds Gold King Mine To Superfund List
By Peak Johnson
Last year, three million gallons of acid mine water from the Gold King Mine spill near Silverton, CO, entered the Animas and San Juan rivers.
The Gold King Mine, located in Denver, was recently designated as a Superfund site earlier this month, allowing for a multimillion-dollar federal cleanup.
According to an Associated Press story appearing in the Deseret News, the U.S. EPA included the now inactive mine and 47 other sites on the Superfund list.
The list also included nine other sites in eight states and Puerto Rico, the AP reported.
The other locations added to the Superfund list, according to The Washington Post, include a custom cleaners site in Memphis, a plastic-manufacturing site in Hoosick Falls, NY, and a lumber site in Quincy, FL.
“Listing the Bonita Peak Mining District on the National Priorities List is an important step that enables EPA to secure the necessary resources to investigate and address contamination concerns of San Juan and La Plata counties, as well as other downstream communities in New Mexico, Utah and the Navajo Nation,” U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Shaun McGrath said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post. “We look forward to continuing our efforts with the state of Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, tribal governments and our community partners to address the impacts of acid mine drainage on the Animas River.”
The EPA had claimed responsibility for the spill which sent a flood of toxic waste into the Animas. In July, New Mexico sued the state of Colorado, stating that it should be held responsible for the massive contamination.
The accidental wastewater spill also placed the federal government in a “tense relationship with the Navajo Nation.”
The AP referenced a poll that was conducted by Chism Strategies in Colorado, in which 67 percent of Coloradans said that they wanted elected officials to do more about cleaning up the mines.
According to The Colorado Independent, Gold King is still leaking and is estimated to be released 500 gallons per minute into the river.
At the moment, the EPA is unsure of how long the cleanup will take place or what it will cost, the AP reported.
To read all of our coverage of the Gold King mine spill visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.