FARMINGTON, N.M. — Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency said Sunday that the Gold King Mine discharged an estimated 3 million gallons of contaminated water, three times the amount previously believed. The mine continues to discharge 500 gallons per minute, EPA Region 8 administrator Shaun McGrath said in a teleconference call Sunday afternoon, but the polluted water is being contained and treated in two ponds by the site of the spill near Silverton, Colo. According to preliminary testing data the EPA released Sunday, arsenic levels in the Durango area of the Animas River were, at their peak, 300 times the normal level, and lead was 3,500 times the normal level. Officials said those levels have dropped significantly since the plume moved through the area. Both metals pose a significant danger to humans at high levels of concentration.

"Yes, those numbers are high and they seem scary," said Deborah McKean, chief of the Region 8 Toxicology and Human Health and Risk Assessment. "But it's not just a matter of toxicity of the chemicals, it's a matter of exposure." She said the period of time those concentrations remain in one area is short.

Earlier Sunday the city of Durango, Colo., and La Plata County, Colo., declared a state of emergency. The Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management also issued a state of emergency declaration in response to the spill. EPA officials said in the teleconference Sunday afternoon that water quality experts have been deployed to Shiprock and are encouraging people there to take advantage of water quality sampling. EPA officials said they are also working to provide necessary materials to people in Farmington and Aztec for private well sampling.

New Mexico Environment Department spokeswoman Allison Scott-Majure said testing has not yet been performed in San Juan County.
In San Juan County, restrictions are still in effect along the Animas River, said County Executive Officer Kim Carpenter. The biggest obstacle, he said, is making sure residents and livestock have access to drinking water. Access to the Animas River is still closed throughout the county, and officials advise residents with wells in floodplains to have their water tested before drinking it or bathing in it.

Carpenter said people and their pets should avoid contact with the river, livestock should not be allowed to drink the water and people should not catch fish in the river. He also instructed people to avoid contact with the wildlife along the river in Berg Park, as information on the chemicals in the water is still being released.In Sunday's teleconference, McGrath said the EPA is looking at the next steps for cleaning up the site."We're working to see if we can get this on the National Priorities List for designation as a SuperFund cleanup site," McGrath said. He qualified the statement a moment later, saying, "It's one option that can be considered."

According to the EPA's website for the Upper Animas Mining District, environmental officials considered adding the Upper Cement Creek area to the National Priorities List in 2008, but decided against it due to a lack of community support.Such a designation would establish the area as an abandoned hazardous waste site and unlock federal funds to implement a comprehensive cleanup plan. As the city of Durango, Colo., and La Plata County, Colo., declared a state of emergency early Sunday, La Plata County Manager Joe Kerby said the decision stemmed from the "serious nature of the incident."

Later in the day, the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management issued a state of emergency declaration in response to the spill.

Rick Abasta, spokesman for President Russell Begaye, said the commission unanimously approved the state of emergency Sunday afternoon and it now goes before the president for approval. The declaration allows using tribal resources for an incident command center in the Shiprock Chapter. Abasta said Begaye and Vice President Jonathan Nez toured the Gold King Ming Sunday. He said Abasta was likely to sign it.


At 27,000 square miles, the Navajo Nation is comparable in size to West Virginia.
Begaye told the Daily Times that he had directed Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch to assemble a legal team to file a lawsuit against the EPA.
"They are impacting the livelihood of our people," he said.Begaye said he was disappointed with the EPA's lack of information and disclosure about the types of toxic metals that were discharged into the Animas and San Juan rivers.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker LoRenzo Bates told the Daily Times that residents were concerned about drinking water safety, river access, water for livestock and crops, and the possibility of compensation for failed crops. With irrigation canals shut off, many farmers are concerned about their next step, Bates said. "If these farmers don't get water in the next week, they'll lose their crops," he said.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) warned residents to stay away from the river and to refrain from using its water for livestock and other household needs. But it said communities along the San Juan River get their drinking water from the city of Farmington, so it is safe for consumption.

Mustard-colored water flowed this week into Cement Creek, a tributary that runs through Silverton and into the Animas River. In New Mexico, the plume of pollution entered Aztec early Saturday morning and Farmington later that morning. Officials said they expected it to reach the Utah border on Monday and Lake Powell, in Arizona, late Wednesday.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said the state's first notification of the spill came from Southern Ute Tribe officials. "It's completely irresponsible for the EPA not to have informed New Mexico immediately," she said after flying over the affected rivers.

State Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn said the EPA did not notify his department of the spill until almost 24 hours after they'd caused it. He said the agency's initial response to the disaster was "cavalier and irresponsible."

Contributing: Greg Toppo, USA TODAY; KUSA-TV, Denver

 d-usa wrote:
To be fair, the headline is just a little bit misleading.

The EPA went into the facility to clean up a giant mess and when they entered they accidentally released the contaminated water. It's not like they said "feth it" and just decided to dump it for the lulz, or to see if they can track the contaminated water to drug cartels.

If the EPA got into an accident with a tank truck and it cracked open and spilled out into a river the correct headline would be "EPA involved in an accident, spill released" and not "EPA releases tanker full of stuff".

Minor annoyance.

 d-usa wrote:
To be fair, the headline is just a little bit misleading.

 d-usa wrote:
To be fair, the headline is just a little bit misleading.

The EPA went into the facility to clean up a giant mess and when they entered they accidentally released the contaminated water. It's not like they said "feth it" and just decided to dump it for the lulz, or to see if they can track the contaminated water to drug cartels.

If the EPA got into an accident with a tank truck and it cracked open and spilled out into a river the correct headline would be "EPA involved in an accident, spill released" and not "EPA releases tanker full of stuff".

Minor annoyance.

 d-usa wrote:
And that has what to do with anything that I wrote?

The minor annoyance is me being annoyed by a misleading title, not the actual spill itself.

 Ahtman wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
To be fair, the headline is just a little bit misleading.

Would someone do that? Make a misleading title about a federal agency?

 d-usa wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
To be fair, the headline is just a little bit misleading.

Would someone do that? Make a misleading title about a federal agency?

To be fair "EPA releases waste" is a sexier headline than "accident at EPA administered clean up site that was left a polution hazard by private company".

 Jihadin wrote:


Whoa. how many individual home owners along the river drink from well water?

 whembly wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:


Whoa. how many individual home owners along the river drink from well water?

Most of the non-burbs area.

Almost all moutainous towns are on well waters.

This is bad news.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
You know what the irony here is? That private company that created the waste may still be legally responsible for it under federal law. At least, the hazardous waste training I go through every year explains it that way. If you generate the waste, you're responsible for what happens to it, forever, no matter what. The trainer jokes that whoever signs the disposal manifest is the "designated felon," as that's the person the EPA will come after first if something goes wrong.

 Jihadin wrote:
The last individual who had Legal positive control of the waste material.
Which seems to be EPA

The president of the Navajo Nation said he feels betrayed that water supplied by the Environmental Protection Agency appeared to be tainted with a black oily substance.

The water was delivered by the EPA to Shiprock, New Mexico, on Friday 14 August, to sustain agricultural operations and livestock after an EPA accident released a toxic plume from Gold King Mine into their natural water supply.

When the water arrived, Joe Ben Jr, a representative of Shiprock’s farm board, said he rejected it after noting signs of contamination.

EPA officials told the Navajo president, Russell Begaye, that Ben is “an unstable individual” who was “agitating” – potentially to achieve some kind of political edge in the escalating discord between the EPA and the Navajo nation, according to Begaye.

The officials reported feeling threatened and subsequently evacuated all EPA personnel from Navajo territory, according to Begaye.

Begaye said he initially did not question the EPA’s assurances.

But when he arrived in Shiprock and inspected the water for himself, he saw black objects floating in the water. When he squeezed them, he said they turned into a greasy streak.

“I was astounded,” Begaye told the Guardian by phone on Thursday. “I couldn’t believe there were black oily streaks in the water.”

He said he filled up a cup three or four times to be sure, and each time, the same oily black spots appeared in the water. When he ran water from the intake valve, his hand was reportedly coated with oil and grease.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he added. “I couldn’t believe the EPA’s higher-ups basically told me a lie.”

The EPA contracted Triple S Trucking, which is part of the Aztec Well family of companies that services the oil and natural gas industry, to deliver the water while irrigation pumps that normally deliver water from the San Juan river are shut down pending water quality assessments.

Ben said he requested certification from Triple S Trucking and the EPA that the barrels used to store the water, allegedly used in fracking operations, had been thoroughly cleaned. But no such report was forthcoming, Ben said.

In a prepared statement, the EPA reported that Triple S claimed to have steam-cleaned and inspected tanks prior to delivering water sourced from the Bloomfield Utility Department in New Mexico for use at Shiprock.

The agency also promised to explore the Navajo Nation’s allegations.

“The US EPA will work closely with Navajo Nation authorities to investigate a recent complaint about water contamination in one tank provided by US EPA for agricultural purposes in the Shiprock, New Mexico area,” the report said.

At the president’s behest, Navajo police seized three of the tanks to use as evidence, and independent analysis of the water quality is being sought.

“It is not the normal conduct of our community to challenge the government,” Ben told the Guardian. “But I was brought on board to protect the natural resources of the Navajo Nation.”

Begaye said some farmers, out of desperation, gave their animals some of the water to drink and irrigated crops such as alfalfa, watermelon and corn.

As a result, he said crops and Navajo land are now tainted with the oily substance.

Navajo farmers have just five months to raise crops for subsistence or barter. This yield has to support them and their families for the entire year.

“Now they are likely to lose all of that,” Begaye said.

The incident builds on mistrust among the Navajo community. Since a toxic spill delivered mine waste containing high levels of lead, arsenic and other heavy metals, to waterways from Colorado’s Animas river to the San Juan river that passes through Shiprock, Begaye has expressed public outrage at the EPA’s inconsistent public information about the spill.

In a video posted on his Facebook page earlier this week, Begaye said he would not drink the water in Cement Creek near Gold King Mine despite assurances it was safe, after he dipped a cup in the creek and brought out yellow-colored water.

In another video posted on his Facebook page from Shiprock on Wednesday, Begaye demonstrates how his finger became streaked in black when he wiped an opening to one of the water tanks.

“This is what they expect our animals to drink?” he asked.

Following data collected from 7 to 15 August near Hogback, New Mexico, the EPA says the San Juan river’s water quality in the Navajo Nation has returned to pre-spill conditions.

“EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye had a productive phone conversation on August 19 to review water quality data,” the statement reads.

Begaye announced on Thursday that he would reopen the river on Saturday. But he says his decision was based on data collected by the Navajo Nation’s own environmental protection agency.

He wants to reassure Navajo farmers the agency will continue to closely monitor three different irrigation systems for signs of heavy metals once the river is reopened, and will immediately shut them down if necessary.

“We don’t trust the EPA,” he said.

“It is not the normal conduct of our community to challenge the government,” Ben told the Guardian. “But I was brought on board to protect the natural resources of the Navajo Nation.”

Ouze wrote:

“It is not the normal conduct of our community to challenge the government,” Ben told the Guardian. “But I was brought on board to protect the natural resources of the Navajo Nation.”

It's a sad day when Native Americans can't trust the United States government.

Relapse wrote:

Ouze wrote:

“It is not the normal conduct of our community to challenge the government,” Ben told the Guardian. “But I was brought on board to protect the natural resources of the Navajo Nation.”

It's a sad day when Native Americans can't trust the United States government.

Agreed. It's been a sad day for centuries.

Ouze wrote:

Relapse wrote:

Ouze wrote:

“It is not the normal conduct of our community to challenge the government,” Ben told the Guardian. “But I was brought on board to protect the natural resources of the Navajo Nation.”

It's a sad day when Native Americans can't trust the United States government.

Agreed. It's been a sad day for centuries.

ThatWasTheJoke.jpg

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
This is what happens when you get the lowest bidder for a job.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
This is what happens when you get the lowest bidder for a job.