Thursday, June 15, 2017

Exposing the EPA’s Gold King Mine Cover-Up

Robert Gordon 

  Does the Environmental Protection Agency care more about its image than it does about the environment? Its behavior in response to the massive 2015 Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado would suggest a very clear “yes.” The Environmental Protection Agency is hiding its incredible recklessness in the affair by giving official accounts that are clearly contradicted by ample evidence in the government’s possession. As the new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt has an opportunity to drain a bit of the swamp by exposing the EPA’s cover-up. In August 2015, an EPA crew inexplicably dug out the rock and rubble “plug” to the long abandoned Gold King Mine, triggering a massive blowout that flooded the Animas River with 3 million gallons of acid mine drainage and, according to the EPA, over 550 tons of metals. Had the EPA actually been doing what it claims it did, the disaster would never have happened. However, it seems the EPA could not allow its reputation to be tarnished with the truth. The EPA has put forth the fiction that its crew had simply removed backfill that was blocking access to a mine tunnel, but did not disturb the natural plug that had formed in the tunnel’s opening that was holding back a sea of acid mine drainage. The EPA claims its crew planned to wait for experts who would address the plug. It says its team was just further cleaning up the site when, through some inexplicable bad luck, the plug eroded, causing a blowout that turned the Animas River bright orange. In essence, the agency wants us to believe that this was an accident that could have happened to anybody. The truth the EPA is concealing is that its team did not stop after excavating to the tunnel’s opening, and never had any intention of stopping. The EPA crew began removing the plug as it had planned, even though it anticipated acid mine drainage would flow out and that the drainage could be pressurized. The EPA’s actions could be likened to poking a balloon with a pin to let out just a little air. At best, the EPA’s actions were incredibly reckless...more

1 comment:

Sam Houston said...

Unfortunately the The upper management of this fiasco will never be fined or jailed. But pity the subcontractor and the physical operator of the equiopment, they will be targets of the law in this case.