Experts see long-term health risks from mine spill
DURANGO, Colo. — The toxic waste that gushed last week from a Colorado mine and threatened downstream water supplies in at least three states will continue to be dangerous whenever contaminated sediment gets stirred up from the river bottom, authorities said Wednesday, suggesting there is no easy fix to what could be a long-term public health risk.
The immediate impact of the 3 million gallon spill on Aug. 5 eased as the plume of contamination dissipated on its way to Lake Powell along the Utah-Arizona border.
But the strong dose of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other heavy metals settled out as the wastewater traveled downstream, layering river bottoms with contaminants sure to pose risks in the future.
“There will be a source of these contaminants in the rivers for a long time,” said hydrologist Tom Myers, who runs a Nevada consulting business. “Every time there’s a high flow, it will stir it up and it will be moving those contaminants downstream.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had pushed for 25 years to grant Superfund status to the partly collapsed Gold King mine and other idled mines leaking heavy metals above the old mining town of Silverton, Colo. That would have brought in major funds for a comprehensive cleanup.
But local authorities spurned federal intervention, leaving a smaller EPA-led team to investigate a small-if-steady stream of pollution. That team accidentally breached a debris wall at the mine, unleashing the pool of contaminated water that turned the Animas River yellow.