EPA Inspector General Investigating Cause, Response in Animas River Waste Accident

摘要

The Office of the Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency said it will investigate the cause and EPA's response to the release of 3 million gallons of mining waste and sediment into the Animas River in southwest Colorado. The investigation, spurred by a congressional request, will involve preliminary research into the spill caused when EPA workers accidentally unleashed the wastewater and sludge at the Gold King Mine on Upper Cement Creek near Silverton, Colo., the OIG said in a letter to the EPA Region 8 Office in Denver Aug. 17. The plume of waste surged from the creek into the Animas River Aug. 5, containing elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. The plume flowed down the Animas into the San Juan River in New Mexico, then poured into the Colorado River at Lake Powell in Utah.