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EPA Admits Spilling Millions Of Gallons Of Toxic Waste Into Colorado River - Stunning Aerial Footage
By John Vibes via TheAntiMedia.org,
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal organization in charge of fining and arresting people and companies for damage done to the environment, spilled over a million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas river in Colorado this week. The waste came from an abandoned mining operation and turned the entire river a disgusting shade of bright orange.
The EPA admitted earlier this week that the spill occurred while workers from the agency were using heavy machinery to open the Gold King Mine, an operation that was shut down some time ago. While trying to enter the mine, the machines busted a shaft that was filled with wastewater, creating a leak into the river.
At first, the EPA attempted to downplay the spill and act like there was nothing wrong, but they were heavily criticized for those initial statements.
Dave Ostrander, the EPA’s regional director told reporters in a later statement that “It’s hard being on the other side of this.”
“We are very sorry for what happened. This is a huge tragedy. It’s hard being on the other side of this. Typically we respond to emergencies; we don’t cause them. … It’s something we sincerely regret,” he said.
However, some people are not willing to let the EPA off that easily, even some politicians have rightly pointed out that the EPA should be treated in the same way that any company or private individual would be treated if they poisoned the river.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, who is from the area where the spill occurred said the EPA must pay for their mistake.
“If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them. The EPA admits fault and, as such, must be accountable and held to the same standard,” Tipton said.
In a statement released this Thursday, Taylor McKinnon, of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said that
“Endangered species downstream of this spill are already afflicted by same toxic compounds like mercury and selenium that may be in this waste. Taylor McKinnon, of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Thursday. “These species are hanging by a thread, and every new bit of toxic exposure makes a bad situation worse. EPA’s downplaying of potential impacts is troubling and raises deeper questions about the thoroughness of its mine-reclamation efforts.”
Aerial footage below:
The EPA actually has no concern for the environment, they just happen to use the environment as a cover story to create laws and gain an advantage for the companies that lobbied for exemptions to the agency’s regulations, and to collect money in fines. There are solutions outside the common government paradigm, and that is mainly the ability for individuals, not governments, to hold polluters personally and financially accountable.
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STIMULUS!!!
Humans strike again. Good job guys for fucking up the wildlife in and around that area.
Motherfucking virus is what humanity is.
Not" HUMANITY" the virus is GOVERNMENT and don't you fucking forget it.
This is what happens when the person in charge of this operation has the CREDENTIALS of being someone's brother-in-law...
No credentials? Why the Director of the EPA, Gina McCarthy has an bachelor of arts degree in social anthropology!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_McCarthy
The EPA should be closed down and every last mother fucker should lose thier job with no unemployment benifits . Ths is the only appropreate punisment for these shits.
Someone should be asking why they are opening a mine containing a barbarous relic, full of pet rocks, and during a time when the price of those "rocks" is in a down trend?
No use in crying over spilled "heavy toxic metal liquid waste"....crying will not solve the problem...the Extra Pollution Agency (EPA) needs to correct the environmental disaster...what...let Mother Nature take care of the problem...that's a good company to hire for the cleanup...why hasn't Obama declared this a federal disaster area and freed up funds for the cleanup...what..taxpayers are going to foot the bill again...what is sad is that nobody at the EPA is going to lose their job, get demoted, or be issued letters of caution..business as usual...
No use in crying over spilled "heavy toxic metal liquid waste"....crying will not solve the problem...the Extra Pollution Agency (EPA) needs to correct the environmental disaster...what...let Mother Nature take care of the problem...that's a good company to hire for the cleanup...why hasn't Obama declared this a federal disaster area and freed up funds for the cleanup...what..taxpayers are going to foot the bill again...what is sad is that nobody at the EPA is going to lose their job, get demoted, or be issued letters of caution..business as usual...
Why was the EPA trying to enter the mine in the first place? Also don't they know that if you going to dig pretty much anywhere with infrastructure (especially "abandoned" mine) that you may hit pipes and stuff? Major fail by the EPA. Should of talked to the original mine owners, got a blue print of the place, or used some kind of ground penetrating image machine. May be the EPA should slap itself with billions of regulations and fines. Imbeciles.
Because it was already leaking acid sluge,
Not "pipes" water channeling through a saturated slope.
Ok. Hold them to the same standards etc blah blah. But trying to say that environmental protection should be in the hands of private individuals and or the market... What a joke...
Guess I better stop collecting rain water - the EPA will be on my case.
Orewellian, again.
So, if a mining company does this, gets sued, and is bankrupted, we cheer. Why don't we defund the EPA, fire all their employees, and cancel funding for their pensions. Make the consequences similar to the private sector. Fix incompetency in government by allowing government agencies to fail. By the same token, stop bailing out failing private companies with tax revenue.
Time to let merit and results hold the crown above intention and political connection.
Did the EPA design or profit from the mine? NO!
What do you suggest we do?
Let it leak or try to fix it?
Do you know how hard that is on an unstable slope?
Whether or not the EPA seeked to make a profit has no bearing on the negative consequences of their actions. By your faulty logic (is there a profit motive?), we could argue any non-profit entity could pollute the environment as much as it pleased as long as they are not seeking a profit.
We're from the Gubbermint and we're here ta help yooooo!
Trump is right. The country is run by a bunch of idiots.
Absolutely correct. But what I don't understand is why he is volunteering to become CEO of the idiots.
It's simple, he wants to be our new Oligarch in Chief. Americans are tired of being fucked by black hope and change and now would like to be fucked by someone who insults them while they are being bent over.
this is not an eco disaster, it's a fund raiser for the epa
And since this was a federal agency, no one will ever be held responsible for any damages. His sincere apology will just have to do.
Laws are for the little people, not our unaccountable, unelected overloards.
The new American Yangtze river. All we are missing now is the factories full of slave labor and the dead pigs floating by.
We polluted some folks.
-The EPA
sorry, the US is fresh out of factories. However on the brighter side we have a surplus of pigs in DC. Lets get some trucks out there and provide some relief to the US citizens. Truck those fkin pigs out to Colorado.
This is the criminal outfit that will do a no-knock 3 am raid on your home if you plant non-native plants by your lakefront.
It is time to shut this shit down.
Wait until the EPA pokes a hole in Yucca Mountain.
“Sorry, we destroyed the continent. You can sue us, but if you want us to pay we’ll need to raise taxes on those people upwind, because, well, when you sue us you really sue yourself. Tee-hee."
EPA,
On behalf of the Fucking people that live there....Thank you.
You fucking meat headed shit sacks.
Just 2 days ago the boob tube said it was completely harmless.
I don't know which gov't agency is more useless and more of a menace to the citizenry... the FDA, the EPA, HUD, ATF, OSHA, take your pick...
Give Obama a straw and send him out there to suck it up.
btw, latest estimate is *three* million gallons.
EPA has announced they are going to sue God for inventing heavy metals.
as God's representative the Pope will have to pick up the tab.
I spent the last few days driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway - in wonderment over how the Americans of the 1930s could build such a monument. Yet today, with today's poorly lead citizens, I doubt we repeat this task. Our EPA pollutes, our NASA drones on about global warming while farming it's manned space missions out to the "backward" Russians. The one Climate indicator that NASA did put up into orbit in 1979 shows no significant change in global sea ice since that time. Yet that simple fact does not fit the progressive narrative, is ignored, and so our Innumerate-in-Chief blathers on about flat earthers, etc. those who do not buy into the religious faith of Man-Made Global Warming.
No change it global sea ice?
Is that why Russia and Canada are starting to use the Northwest passage?
that's just cause beluga whales have been humping so much this winter it moved the ice around.
guy whale, "was it good for you honey"?
girl whale, "oooh yes, I felt the ice move".
Not saying the EPA is blameless but, does anyone else think that perhaps the mining company that filled the shaft with toxic water might share some of the responsibility? Just filling the shaft doesn't seem like a stable, long-term storage strategy for toxic waste.
I wonder who owns the mine?
the government owns the mine. there is no private property in the US that the government does not hold the final lien on. To quote a .gov official, "we didn't build that mine".
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Ageny (EPA) and the state departments oversee the rules that regulate hazardous waste.
Send the EPA to Hanford to clean up that Nuclear Toxic Waste up (1/2 million years of Plutonium toxicity). Wait... don't send the EPA... were screwed.
rules... rule no 1, don't make it worse.
Friends of Cliven Bundy?
It is more a case of toxic geology.
The gold bearing rock also contains sulpher. Mines below the water table fill with water. The Sulpher disolves in the water creating sulpheric acid. The acid sitting for years in the mine disolves elements in the rock like arsenic and zinc. Some sites do have additional mercury and cyanide which was used in refining processes.
It is more a case of toxic geology.
The gold bearing rock also contains sulpher. Mines below the water table fill with water. The Sulpher disolves in the water creating sulpheric acid. The acid sitting for years in the mine disolves elements in the rock like arsenic and zinc. Some sites do have additional mercury and cyanide which was used in refining processes.
This leak will free up space to store other waste.
It’s all OK.
EPA = Extermination Protocol Administration
EPA = Executives Protection Agency
Seriously, name one thing fed government has done to better our lives. None.
Nothing if you don't count
1.railroads
2. an end to slavery.
3. NASA,
4. the intergrated circuit
5. Computers
6. Arpanet/ the Internet.
7. Antibotics
8. Antifungals
9. A vaccinate population with high herd immunity.
10. Rural Electrification
11. An end to the dustbowl.
12. Social Security.
13. The interstate Highway system.
1.railroads- built by Chinese
2. an end to slavery. - And end to black slavery and start of white slavery
3. NASA, - built by Ex Nazi Werner von Braun.
4. the intergrated circuit -
5. Computers - Brits built first one.
6. Arpanet/ the Internet. - WWW invented by European
7. Antibotics - give you that one
8. Antifungals - big fucking deal
9. A vaccinate population with high herd immunity. - vaccinate them with unnessary crap to give them autism.
10. Rural Electrification - ugly electric poles and 110 Volt. archaic. Underground and you have no outages due to storms. Expensive but then again you get what you pay for.
11. An end to the dustbowl. - and start of the shitbowl called the USA.
12. Social Security. - good one but the poor have to contribute the most and people making over 100k pay NOTHING.
13. The interstate Highway system. - Crappy potholed roads with bad road bed. NOthing like hi speed autobahns that criss cross Europe.
Silver works better than these two
7. Antibotics - give you that one
8. Antifungals - big fucking deal
Governmnt gave us billions of deaths. Period.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9foi342LXQE&safe=active
call me a looney but...THE EPA RELEASED THIS WATER ON PUTPOSE. the people that are financially responsible paid off the gov to 'accidentally' spill the water, getting rid of the liability.
USSA becomes more Third World Fourth Reich with each passing day. Shame what psychopathic hubris and unbridled corruption have spawned in a once passable "democracy".
You fucking tards. So the EPA fucked up. If the EPA never existed, the mining company would have just dumped that shit in the river already, along with ever other fucking mining company and ever other corporation with toxic waste. You seriously want a country that has an environment like China?
Huge false dichotomy that if the Feds didn't do it with centralized power no one would. We'd probably have a much better system without the Feds, that actually punished true polluters like whoever dumped this stuff in the river.
Wishful thinking.
Been there, done that.
We HAD system without the Feds until 1972, which is how the mines in the West got so fucked up to begin with.
The true polluters were the good ole boys of their respective regions. No one was able to pull the reins in on them.
And who exactly would "punish" those polluters Einstein? Maybe a govt organization? And maybe they would need rules to decide who was polluting. Sounds kind of like our current system.
It would if property righst were taken seriously. Polluting rivers or the air would be a thing of the past if people were forbidden to pollute anything not located within their property, arguing here that you cant just pollute someone elses property. Only your own, and the water and air within it.
And public lands belong to the public at large, so it should also be illegal to degrade them just as it is illegal to destroy public property.
You are a moron. That mine CLOSED in 1923.
The EPA was establised December 2, 1970.
Didn't these same shitheads kill a guy because he was camping with a knife?
Poison all of the water with radionuclides, voc's, crude, pesticides, herbicides and see how long you are for planet earth, ye beyond morons.
Bio-diversity guys says EPA behavior is "troubling". How muted of him. Fuck off, asshole.
It's a good thing that the government doesn't produce porn films; can you imagine WHAT that would be like?...
Looks like they ran out of butt plugs
I've been wondering why my Coors beer just doesn't taste like crap anymore,it actually looks like shit now,too..
That is a huge toxic spill and the potential effect of wildlife is big.
BUT i agree that the EPA has apologized, and clearly what happened was an accident. This REALLY goes to show the big problem from old contaminants that exist at mining sites. The PROBLEM with mining and fracking is that the companies are GOOD with a "profits now" policy. But they are not on-the-hook for an environmental cleanup of the disaster that they leave behind. That problem must belong to "somebody else".
EVERY toxic site that we leave in America ... becomes a problem for our kids.
The funny thing about regret is...
We awsomely regret that everything is dead or dying.
Not new.
The water in Cement Creek was declared undrinkable in 1879.
Protecting the environment at it's best.
Nope - the EPA just taking the hit for a Clinturd and Trumpass mud bath in the river.
S'what happens when accountability is not required of anyone by those in charge because there's no expectation of accountability from those we vote for nor those appointed.
Exxon - having learned a great deal after the Valdez incident - has already offered support to the EPA and will be sending in 10,000 baby seals to help soak up the contaminated water -
Stunning aerial photography... Have you ever seen a red tide? Or an entire reef turn luminescent during the mating season? I've seen the (rich) Vietnamese turn the ocean bright green for days, celebrating the Tet. There are rivers that look like this all the time because of the alkali content of the strata.
More globalist control freak exaggeration. That means Soros is behind this McLuhanesque propaganda.
You must read McLuhan. This is his playbook, with one variation: the State took measures to prevent McLuhan's tactics from being used. Which means your criminal government is complicit.
Get clear: the EPA is a subversive criminal organization that lies all the time.
because the people whom it is supposed to regulate now work at the EPA-hence, 'lies all the time' is correct
"Colorado mine spill 3 times larger than believed, feds say ..."
"the Animas River has historically been polluted by acid mine drainage."
"Mustard-colored water loaded with heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium, began rushing out of the Gold King Mine on Wednesday after an EPA team disturbed a dam of loose rock lodged in the mine."
from now on you can fish, but don't eat; drink, but don't swallow; go to the river, but don't go in for a swim
If this had been caused by a private company it would be sued into oblivion (Remember Owens Corning?). But from the government an apology is all we get because nobody will be fired. America is dead.
The EPA is named appropriately just as Orwell suggested.
Gina McCarthy, the Director of the EPA who has a clipped butch haircut and looks like a mean prison guard, has yet to comment on the spill.
What matters more to the EPA Director is the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of EPA's workforce:
http://federalnewsradio.com/workforce/2014/12/dispatch-from-the-middle-o...
If I was at all conspiracy minded, I'd think this was lesbo engineered to exacerbate the water crisis in the southwest.
She's probably too busy at some gender-change convention.
Would someone please name one federal agency that didn't go completely fubar under Obama's reign of Terror?
I can name 500 that did, complete list of federal agencies here
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2015/08/over-500-federal-agencies-b...
"Oh, I am so sorry" and work home free, those retards in the EPA. When next time SHTF in the stock market, Fed will say "It's your fault that you lose all your hard earn savings".
Is that shit?
Heavy metals from a mine abandoned in 1923 and ignored by the agency in charge of monitoring the situation until now. Environmental terrorism by proxy is what I call it. EPA should be dismantled. "I'm sorry" isn't good enough.
People don't see it. EPA is more lethal than those toxic waste.
Full list is here, kind of disgusting
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2015/08/over-500-federal-agencies-b...
I think it is part of the problem.
Way too large a government, over 500 Federal Agencies, being influenced in way too many ways.
Think if a candidate promised to eliminate / combine 200 of these agencies. He would probably lose the gov worker votes, and the moocher votes.
He or she would get my vote. Hillary "don't let anyone, you know, tell you that businesses create jobs" Clinton would not eliminate any agencies, but rather increase their numbers and sizes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a link to the spreadsheet on Box (don't confuse this with Dropbox which I don't like for several reasons.
So you think the problem is the government is too large?
Ya think? Really?
I would like to see a law to regulate the number of laws. Say, there can be a total maximum of 10.000 laws. You want one more, you have to delete another.
The hebrew code of laws has only 613 laws.
Meh. Obama just wanted a river to match the curtains at his normal press conferences.
Might have to change the name to the Environmental Polution Agency.
O/T, but niggers are rioting for Micael Brown, strong-arm robber.
Niggers. Fuck 'em.
Fuck the police. Oink.
Why would there be a shaft full of wastewater in a defunct mine? Who was dumping there?
Why is the EPA carrying out operations like this in the first place?
don't know how the water from the Colorado is distributed, but if the other states pass on the orange water, Southern California gets to have it all (or maybe Mexico finally gets some water)
headn for the San Joaquin Valley
Bread Basket of America
I thought it was lower basin, had a look at a Colorado basin map, the spill is above Lake Mead, so it involves everybody using upper and lower basin water. My condolences to 6 States.
The punishment should be the abolishment of the EPA and for each state, region and locality to decide on how best to manage their resources. Along with that, the Department of Education should be abolished for all the toxic pollution they have spewed into the brains of our children. We could go on, but fining the EPA does nothing except add to the tax payer. The EPA has been used for corporate profits for years & the abuse of people's property rights; just look into the sky and ask what the aerosols that are polluting the skies are and why this is allowed. Ask why the EPA doesn't crack down or even investigate the chemicals that Haliburton uses. We are a nation in severe decline where it counts; morally.
The EPA was stuck cleaning it up because the state and local governments fell down on the job.
The EPA and out-of-state taxpayers got stuck paying the cleanup because the state and local officials would not do it, despite the danger it posed.
Without the EPA, this mine waste would have flooded out anyways, because no one else was taking care of it.
The Conservative who ran the company simply got jobs at the state of Federal EPA....now everything will be wonderful....God Bless Monsanto
Environmental Pollution Agency.
Round up the usual suspects and do what the gubermint does best.......promote them.
Last I checked the Monticello. MN nuke plant is the same design as Fukushima. Here we have some idiots falsifying test results on what might some folks might consider to be important. I drive by that nuke every day and sometimes wonder what goes on there. I have iodine pills on hand just in case. Monticello is right on the Mississippi River so what could possibly go wrong? One has to wonder if some nuclear waste dumped into the Mississippi this far upstream might not actually help rid the river of invasive species?
Here is my favorite pearl from that link...
“We are confident the storage canisters are safe and secure, and the welds are good,” Laura McCarten, regional vice president for Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, said in an interview.
Laura probably has lots of experience with welding don't you think? She probably has a TIG welder in her garage and welds aluminum for fun on weekends. I'll bet Laura started in HR and then sucked a lot of cock to get her current position and probably can't even read a P&L.
Rest assured that we are all safe though.
Maybe this will be Obama's "Chernobyl" where the scales fell from the citizenry's eye.
The EPA wants us to not have any 'Animus' toward their screwing up the 'Animas'.
Damn you goldbugs! If it weren't for you, this wouldn't have happened!
I will plus you because that is obviously /sarc. What the hell is Mintcoin though? Do you have actual coins for sale? I am always interested in coins.
Why were Federal taxpayers stuck cleaning up this mine in the first place? Whoever filled a waste mine with this toxic stew should have been forced to go back and clean it up themselves.
The government forced them out of business and took over the lands.
Can't let a crisis go to waste. Anyone want to guess what the angle will be on this one?
As it is this whole thing stinks already, WTF were they doing? "to deal with a previously existing problem of seepage, were excavating loose material when some gave way and created an opening in the mine tunnel that sent waste water spilling out, EPA officials said."
So to deal with seepage they decided to dig a hole in loose material that was part of containment? I would scream conspiracy but it is the government and that degree of stupidity is plausible... at least for now. They also after nearly a week are unable to give an acceptable list of the contents of the spill and chose not to give ample warning to those downstream.
Now when you have an environmental emergency of this magnitude how long does it take to get heavy metal verification back from a lab? WTF over?
Oh Oops!
With them making up laws out of thin air and shutting down so many coal fields I'm surprised they had the time to poison a river.
Busy beavers those EPA dudes.
Squid
The commenters here are obviously experts in science, especially Paleoclimatology. So they don't want EPA to try and mitigate global warming by regulating CO2, but y'all do care about toxic metals in your river.
Wait, is it just that you can see an river turned orange, but you can't see extra C02 in the air. I mean are you all really that dumb that you don't even understand basic scientific methodology and the peer-review process? What if CO2 made the air purple? Would your heads come out of your asses then?
How did we come out of 4 ice ages dumb ass? Woolly mammoths must have been driving cars and working in factories with smoke stacks galore. Wyoming was tropical. Why can't you Climate Change Communists as Lord Monckton calls you ever think for yourselves? Climate Change propaganda is the means to Totalitarian World Government. We are sure to enjoy more orange rivers.