EPA Emergency Plan for Mine Blowout Lacked 'Worst-Case Scenario,' Official Says

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency didn't anticipate a "worst-case" scenario involving a possible mine blowout in the emergency response part of its plan to dewater an abandoned Colorado mine, the agency's top emergency response official acknowledged Sept. 9. "The emergency response component did not include a worst-case scenario of a blowout, and that is some- thing I have committed to include going forward," Mathy Stanislaus, EPA assistant administrator for solid waste and emergency response, told the House Science, Space and Technology Committee during a hearing on the toxic mine spill from the Silverton, Colo.-based Gold King Mine. Several times during the hearing, Stanislaus told Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) as well as Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and other Republican lawmakers that the EPA, the state of Colorado and its contractors had identified the potential for mine blowouts.