Animas River, Colorado - HUGE Environmental Disaster!!!

[jcazgoldchaser]

If you frequent the waters of the Animas, an EPA accident has released 1 million gallons of mining waste into the waterway.
Animas River fouled by 1 million gallons of contaminated mine water - The Denver Post

The La Plata County Sheriff's Office has closed the river from the San Juan County line – including Durango – to New Mexico. Authorities say they will re-evaluate the closure once the EPA tests are confirmed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/us/wastewater-spill-in-colorado-turns-a-river-yellow.html?_r=0
The EPA spilled 1 million gallons of waste water - Business Insider

Be safe out there!!

 

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[fowledup]

I'm sorry, I'm not meaning to make light of the situation but I couldn't help myself

 

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[GoldpannerDave]

If you guys in Colorado had The Sierra Fund this wouldn't be an issue!

Yeah, right.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I did a Powerpoint presentation for my chemistry class here at USAFA based mostly on material drawn from this thread. Thanks guys. I would post it here, but it is 13 Megs; not sure it would let me do so. However, would like to try; anyone know how to do that? There doesn't seem to be an item in the ribbon menu that will let me.

 

[goldenIrishman]

If you guys in Colorado had The Sierra Fund this wouldn't be an issue!

Ok.... Who are you and what did you do with Fowled?

 

[fowledup]

Ok.... Who are you and what did you do with Fowled?

LMAO- Fear not J my wife says I'm still here and haven't changed one bit!

 

[KevinInColorado]

LMAO- Fear not J my wife says I'm still here and haven't changed one bit!

If your wife says it's true you better at least ACT like she's right! :P

 

[M.E.G.]

EPA Contractor Behind CO Mine Spill Got $381 Million From Taxpayers

EPA Contractor Behind Spill Got $381 Million From Taxpayers | The Daily Caller

 

[goldenIrishman]

Seems from reading that article that the contractor is involved in many other projects for the government. What I find interesting is that the EPA has been so reluctant to give out the companys name. Usually when something like this happens, the contractor is the first one thrown under the bus. Makes me wonder as to just what the relationship is here. a quick search on Yahoo gave me this...

LINKEDIN Page listing:

Environmental Restoration LLC (ER) is a provider of Environmental Site Remediation, Construction and Emergency Response services for hazardous waste materials management. With 18 offices located nationwide, ER provides these professional services to a diverse client base and has become a recognized leader in the industry for consistent delivery of exceptional project management and cost effective services. ER has developed and maintains experienced project management and field staff who have earned a reputation for flawless project execution.Well so much for "Flawless Project execution".

Established in 1997, ER is privately owned. Our founding partners average 30 years of ‘hands on’ experience solving clients’ hazardous waste management problems. Collectively, this group has directed and managed small and large scale environmental projects for federal, state and commercial clients. Since our founding, ER management and crews have provided our services for over 2,000 site remediation projects. In addition to site remediation, ER Emergency Response Teams respond to more than 1200 time-critical incidents per year.Site clean up on most projects is pretty straight forward in most cases, but this required knowledge of mining. Were they qualified for this project?

ER is a small business with a total employment of 392 personnel. Our personnel maintain current industry trainings and hazardous waste specific certifications. ER can provide experienced and skilled project management personnel, project supervisors, foremen, CDL drivers, heavy equipment operators and field technicians.
Specialties

Emergency Response, Environmental Remediation, Environmental Construction

Hummmm... I don't see anything listed here for qualified mining engineers. Again, were they qualified to be working on this project?

Here is a link to the company web site. Check out the projects and you'll see that they are involved in several mine cleanups of various types but I couldn't find a single listing for them having mining engineer(s) on their payroll....

Environmental Restoration LLC | Site Remediation, Environmental Construction, Emergency Response

 

[NEPADIGGER7]

There is your tax dollars at work right there. Yes accidents do happen...but im suprised the EPA even admitted to it. I lived in the springs for 2 years and its wayyyy to beautiful out the to be polluted. Somebody needs to do something fast. Most stae dont even let people detect on state land and these genious people spill a million gallons of wastewater and thats ok? Unbelievable.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Environmental Restoration only did what they were paid to do. This was entirely an EPA project. I named the 4 people responsible for this fiasco in this previous post in this thread - Steve, Paula, Liz and Cynthia. Trying to put blame on their employees is predictable.

For those of you still confused about whether this could have been the fault of the owners of the GoldKing or maybe it was just an accident please remember that the plug the EPA put in was just above the creek. Here is a nice picture to show you just how high the GoldKing is above any water source:



The water that came out of that mine was forced up from below. That was the "experiment" that Steve, Paula, Liz and Cynthia were trying. Many people that should know the facts think Steve, Paula, Liz and Cynthia were hoping for exactly what happened. EPA job security.

Heavy Pans

 

[rodoconnor]

This kind of stinks of cronyism/nepotism. I wonder if they enjoy no-bid contracts? Time for a major investigation into ER

 

[Nitric]

Does anyone know if they tried anything after they broke it open? Now, knowing what the limestone is for. Was someone on the phone calling every contractor they could saying " uhhh hey? We need as many loads of stone up here as soon as you can, we have a mess!" Or is this something that nothing could be done? That would have been the time to experiment! Was anything tried, or done after it let loose?

 

[GoldpannerDave]

like the sierra fund makin claims that mercury is a problem in our waterway, but conveniently leave out SELENIUM from all there biased reports. sand and charcoal do wonders for filtering water, mother nature will cure this orange plumetoo, i see this as a blessing for suction dredge miners, EPA expert dummies bring in finderlings to test and results are healty fishys, but that was very evident from the beginning of this EPA plume, and my guess if not Selenium it will be another Element to cure the problem
Gina McCarthy should resign or be fired

Scientists find another way to reduce mercury in wetlands,

Scientists find a way to reduce mercury in wetlands | The Sacramento Bee

New ways to remove mercury? By adding iron and aluminum salts?? Those salts are bad for fish, especially aluminum salts. And they could have just let the miners remove the mercury. The article discusses the problem of mercury in the sediments but never mentions that dredgers remove it!!

Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

 

[nh.nugget]

Why would they let the dredgers do it for free? they rather suck up our tax dollars and make a mess out of environment! And milk it out for years and then blame us for it. And they call it the land of the free?

 

[timemachine]

Darn, I was due to backpack down to Rainbow Bridge and Lake Powell leaving from Page, AZ in 2 weeks! The only source of water is...well, you guessed it! Looks like we'll be spending vacation hiking overnite elsewhere.
Pretty frusterating how much this unfortunate accident will affect so many for years to come. Governments, municipalities, tribes and people will sue the taxpayers into perpetuity, and we'll never hear the end of how this is big government gone awry...but I guess corporations always police themselves in the first place and never file for bankruptcy protection.
Good luck everyone...Heavy pans...the responsible way!

 

[Ponchosportal]

New ways to remove mercury? By adding iron and aluminum salts?? Those salts are bad for fish, especially aluminum salts. And they could have just let the miners remove the mercury. The article discusses the problem of mercury in the sediments but never mentions that dredgers remove it!!

Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

Yeah I hear there is a big line of people just waiting to dredge the U.S wetlands for gold. Really?

 

[Mad Machinist]

You've got the right idea Nitric. Size really helps with these beds - particularly when you have a large volume of water to treat.

Here's some folks back east with a little more involved solution on a much smaller scale. The explanation of how and why the limestone works so well might help readers here understand how the limestone bed and the downstream rivers clean themselves of these metal loads.

Once you understand the chemistry you will see why there is a much weaker pH and metals load downstream in the Animas and essentially none in Navajo Land or Utah.

Chemistry is your friend. Different types of rock can quite effectively change the pH and cause metals to go into solution or drop back out of solution.

Heavy Pans

Clay,

This is exactly what I was alluding to with the post I put up about the tailings concentrator. I grew up in Western PA and have a great deal of experience around AMD. The ponds work great until they become saturated with metals. The concentrators remove that problem and also concentrate the dissolved heavy metals for recovery and processing to recover the metals for industry.

So basically one would be mining without mining. Plug the mine and install a bunch of these to process the water. These could be used in perpetuity as long as they were maintained and replaced as necessary. As a finishing touch the "cleaned" water could be passed through a limestone filter to remove the last traces of any heavy metals and the limestone could be crushed and processed when it becomes saturated.

Maybe the EPA really does need to hire some experienced miners to solve a lot of the "mining problems". They might actually gain some respect again that way.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Darn, I was due to backpack down to Rainbow Bridge and Lake Powell leaving from Page, AZ in 2 weeks! The only source of water is...well, you guessed it! Looks like we'll be spending vacation hiking overnite elsewhere.
...

I think you would do well to study that hike a little more timemachine. I'm surprised the Navajos would give you a permit for this time of year. The North trail is beautiful in the fall or the spring.

There is no reliable water anywhere along either trail during this late summer season except for the occasional flash flood. (they did warn you about staying out of the canyons?)

Any water you do find will be undrinkable without treatment. You will be filtering out livestock waste (those aren't raisins) as well as bacteria, salt and heavy metals if you do find water.

At this time of year that is a brutal hike, more of a death march really in this heat. You really need to plan to carry enough water for your whole visit. About three gallons for drinking alone per day, more for cooking and washing. Plan on a minimum of 32 pounds of water per day of your trip. You should count on at least 1 day each way as well as a day of rest and exploration. That's 96 pounds per person for a round trip at this time of year. I did say brutal didn't I?

There is no water at Rainbow Bridge, there hasn't been in many years. The nearest water is about a mile and a half away at the lake. You wouldn't want to drink that water anyway because that is where the 100's of houseboats put in every day. The water is polluted with oil, gas, beer, human waste and trash from all the partying on the boats.

There is no pollution of any kind from the Animas spill in the lake or the State of Utah for that matter. It never made it there. From today's Utah DEQ assessment:

The underlying chemistry in western streams creates conditions that cause most metals to settle from the water or otherwise be retained upstream. The chemical environment of these rivers should cause iron—about 85 percent of the metals that were released in the spill—to settle relatively quickly.

Alkaline conditions in the Animas and San Juan Rivers and the large quantities of sediment that move through these systems mean the metals are likely to remain attached to particles and not pose acute risks to aquatic life or people.

The total volume of water released constitutes less than 1 percent of the daily flow in the San Juan River. The relative threat of exposure to toxic metals diminishes as these metals become diluted and dispersed in the water.

Based on these data, DOH does not expect that recreational or agricultural use of the San Juan River will result in adverse effects in people, livestock, or crops.

The State of Utah has been unable to detect any evidence of the spill from the GoldKing in any of their tests.

Heavy Pans

 

[2cmorau]

Months ago, Colorado town begged EPA to leave Gold King Mine alone - Watchdog.org

my guess is the twon has a right to sue EPA

 

[2cmorau]

Boat load of Salts in are waterways fish doin fine, nitrate's of all sorts.
but like ya said: Never let facts get in the way of a good story

New ways to remove mercury? By adding iron and aluminum salts?? Those salts are bad for fish, especially aluminum salts. And they could have just let the miners remove the mercury. The article discusses the problem of mercury in the sediments but never mentions that dredgers remove it!!

Never let facts get in the way of a good story.