Is EPA Trying To Sabotage Its Gold King Mine Blowout Investigation?
Republican chairmen of two key House committees sent a letter to EPA highlighting their concerns agency officials are trying to undermine an investigation by the inspector general’s office in the wake of a recent agency document weaving a “new narrative” about the Gold King Mine blowout in August.
“[T]he Committee on Natural Resources is troubled by the EPA’s disclosure last week that it had recently interviewed two material witnesses to the EPA’s activities at Gold King Mine,” Republican Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah and Louie Gohmert of Texas wrote to the EPA’s inspector general.
“Specifically, the Committee is concerned that the EPA’s interview did not follow best investigative practices and may have interfered with the OIG’s ongoing investigation,” the lawmakers wrote to the agency.
...The Republicans argue EPA is trying to create a new narrative about the spill that the agency was actually going to open the mine on August 14 — nine days after the mine spill actually occurred. They say this “claim is demonstrably false and is one of multiple claims that diverge from the facts and conclusions presented in reports issued previously by EPA and the Interior Department.”
