NM planning to sue feds, Colorado over mine spill

EPA release tainted rivers in three states

New Mexico plans to sue the federal government, the state of Colorado and the owners of two mines there that were the source of a massive spill last year that contaminated rivers in three Western states, officials said Thursday.

The New Mexico Environment Department said it filed a notice of its intention to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the spill, becoming the first to do so. The lawsuit would also target the state of Colorado and the owners of the Gold King and Sunnyside Mines.

An EPA cleanup crew accidentally unleashed millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater in August at the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo. It fouled rivers in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah with contaminants, including arsenic and lead. The spill sent a yellow plume through the Animas Valley and into New Mexico and the San Juan River, forcing farmers and municipalities to shut off their taps. Farmers and ranchers on the Navajo Nation were left without a key water source for crops and livestock for weeks.

The New Mexico regulators said they will sue if the EPA does not begin to take meaningful measures to clean up the affected areas and agree to a long-term plan that will research and monitor the effects of the spill.

“From the very beginning, the EPA failed to hold itself accountable in the same way that it would a private business,” said Ryan Flynn, state Environment Department cabinet secretary.

The EPA declined to comment as did the Colorado attorney general.

Flynn said Colorado balked when New Mexico asked for information about the spill’s effects on the Animas River watershed the two states share. In fact, Colorado asked New Mexico to pay about $20,000 for a public records request, he said.