Criminal investigation launched into mine spill
Navajo Times | Chris Pineo San Juan river
WASHINGTON
A federal agency has launched a criminal investigation into the breach at Colorado’s Gold King Mine, which, one year ago this month, released three million gallons of toxic wastewater into a tributary of the Animas River.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of the Inspector General is conducting a criminal inquiry into the spill, which devastated parts of the Navajo Nation.
EPA crews working at the Gold King Mine in August 2015 accidentally ruptured the opening, sending the mine waste downstream into Cement Creek, the Animas River and then the San Juan.
The contaminated water contained heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. Announcement of the investigation comes after U.S. Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and John McCain, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking the Department of Justice to investigate.
“I am glad to see that a criminal investigation into the Gold King Mine disaster is finally under way,” Barrasso, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said in a prepared statement.
“Tribal communities in the affected region have been devastated and the EPA has not taken responsibility for the mess it made.”
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