Wastewater from Colorado mine reaches New Mexico

FARMINGTON, N.M. – Mustard-colored wastewater laced with heavy metals continues to drain into a river from an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado at a rate of about 550 gallons per minute, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which caused the spill. The rate of discharge Saturday was down from about 740 gallons per minute on Friday. But three days after the massive spill, the agency said it still didn't know what the possible environmental and health impacts are. The plume reached the northern New Mexico cities of Aztec on Friday night, and Farmington on Saturday morning. Local government officials in New Mexico and Colorado have blasted the EPA, saying they didn't alert communities soon after the spill and that answers have been slow in coming. "There's not a lot we can do. We can keep people away (from the river) and keep testing. We still don't know how bad it is," San Juan County Emergency Management Director Don Cooper said. Officials in both cities shut down the river's access to water treatment plants and say the communities have a 90-day supply of water and other water sources to draw from...more