ROGUE BUREAUCRACY DUMPS TOXIC WASTE IN COLORADO RIVER
|| By FITSNEWS || The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – which is attempting to regulate every puddle in America – spilled more than three million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River in Colorado last week, creating an eighty mile plume.
The spill turned the river orange … literally.
Here’s what the disaster looks like from the air …
(Click to play)
(Vid: Via)
Wow …
So … what happened?
According to the agency, an EPA “cleanup crew” was attempting to enter the abandoned Gold King Mine near Durango, Colorado. During their efforts, they knocked over a rock dam – releasing a torrent of polluted water laced with arsenic, lead, copper, aluminum and cadmium. Original reports indicated one million gallons of waste, however that total was quickly updated.
Oh, and the list of contaminants released was updated to include mercury and selenium.
Here’s a look at the location of the breach …
Oh, and guess what … the EPA waited a day to inform the public of the accident.
The massive spill has prompted the city of Durango and La Plata County, Colorado to declare states of emergency. Neighboring states are also bracing for the impact of the plume.
“The magnitude of it, you can’t even describe it,” New Mexico governor Susana Martinez told local television station KRQE as the toxic sludge approached her home state.
Unreal …
“We are very sorry for what happened,” a regional EPA director said in the aftermath of the disaster. “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.”
Of course another EPA official quickly added that while “the orange color is alarming to people … that is not an indication in any way of a health risk.”
Uh-huh …
Should we believe them? Hell no.
Rayna Willhite, of Aztec, holds a bottle of water collected from the Animas River that contains mine waste. pic.twitter.com/fTip9LGsDu
— jerry mcbride (@jerryphotog) August 6, 2015
Seriously: You gonna drink that?
A tributary of the San Juan River, the Animus is part of the Colorado River system. It runs for an estimated 126 miles through Colorado and New Mexico.
Naturally, the mainstream media isn’t giving the incident wall-to-wall live coverage because the government caused the mess … not a corporation. But at least some elected officials in the area are demanding the agency be held accountable.
“If a mining operator or other private business caused the spill to occur, the EPA would be all over them,” U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton of Colorado said. “The EPA admits fault and, as such, must be accountable and held to the same standard.”
Meanwhile environmentalists are livid at the agency for delaying to notify the public about the disaster – and for downplaying the health and environmental risks. One group, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity said the spill could be devastating for endangered species in the area.
“These species are hanging by a thread, and every new bit of toxic exposure makes a bad situation worse,” the group said in a statement, adding the “EPA’s downplaying of potential impacts is troubling and raises deeper questions about the thoroughness of its mine-reclamation efforts.”
112 comments
I wonder if they could do that for the waterways in the Clemson Area?
Naw they’ve already got PCB’s from the old Sangamo Plant near “Hogwaller” in Hartwell’s lake sediment to worry about.
Official warnings about eating fish from Hartwell have been posted for damn near 20 years………….
Why does this seem like something that Gilligan would do?
Because there is no difference between Gilligan and Obama. They’re both dumb as hell and spent years effing up everything around them.
Amen to that!!!
From what I have seen of environmental wackos Gilligan would be their leader.
“…Oh, and guess what … the EPA waited a day to inform the public of the accident…”
Maybe the dumb bastards thought no one would notice
The EPA blamed it on Bush.
I would too
You Americans and your sirry rivers! You onry have orange and brown, we have bright green and red and other corors! We stirr superior!
10+ ….. har! .. har!
Why the Yellow River is in China.
An American tourist goes on a trip to China. While in China, he is very sexually promiscuous and does not use a condom all the time.
A week after arriving back home in the States, he awakes one morning to find his penis covered with bright green and purple spots. Horrified, he immediately goes to see a doctor. The doctor, never having seen anything like this before, orders some tests and tells the man to return in two days for the results.
The man returns a couple of days later and the doctor says: “I’ve got bad news for you. You’ve contracted Mongolian VD. It’s very rare and almost unheard of here. We know very little about it.”
The man looks a little perplexed and says: “Well, give me a shot or something and fix me up, doc.”
The doctor answers: “I’m sorry, there’s no known cure. We’re going to have to amputate your penis.”
The man screams in horror, “Absolutely not! I want a second opinion!”
The doctor replies: “Well, it’s your choice. Go ahead if you want, but surgery is your only choice.”
The next day, the man seeks out a Chinese doctor, figuring that he’ll know more about the disease.
The Chinese doctor examines his penis and proclaims: “Ah, yes, Mongolian VD. Velly lare disease.”
The guy says to the doctor: “Yeah, yeah, I already know that, but what we can do? My American doctor wants to operate and amputate my penis!”
The Chinese doctor shakes his head and laughs: “Stupid Amelican docta, always want to opelate. Make more money, that way. No need to opelate!”
“Oh, Thank God!,” the man replies.
“Yes,” says the Chinese doctor, “you no worry! Wait two weeks… it fall off by itself!”
Maybe the EPA did not know right away because it was a PRIVATE CONTRACTOR who caused the breach and not EPA employees.
I love that you guys make the EPA the bad guy here when a PRIVATE COMPANY caused the contamination and another PRIVATE COMPANY caused the release to the river.
Gotta love that libertarian logic!
“…..workers with the Environmental Protection Agency unintentionally made the problem worse…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/10/what-the-epa-was-doing-when-it-sent-yellow-sludge-spilling-into-a-colorado-creek/
“….On August 4, EPA workers were clearing out the nearby Gold King mine, closed since 1923, when they breached a debris dam….”
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9126853/epa-mine-spill-animas
Neither the Post nor Vox mentioned anything about “private contractors” but if you want to drink your own Kool Aid then fuck away
Drink it up big boy it tastes sooo good!
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/11/will-epa-fire-contractors-that-caused-the-toxic-mine-waste-spill/
Y’all trying to rob us blind to pay for the mythical Global Warming scam, yet you the biggest polluters of em all.
Hmm… This one is pretty bad, but you are just ignoring Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon if you think this is the biggest disaster we’ve had.
Heavy metals are ACTUAL poisons. Crude oil is mostly just icky.
EPA still stops more pollution than it accidentally causes.
Really…please provide stats…also share how much ozone depleting CO2 and fossil fuels are devoured by the jet setting, gilded EPA administrators and investigators in their quest to save us from contained toxins…
I can’t believe it! Suddenly the Republicans care about the environment!
The world’s turning upside down I tells ya!
Spot On !
You get caught bent over with your ass up in the air, fresh off accepting your rape. Yet you always look to blame someone else.
Let’s hope the ruse has finally run out in 2016. I think it has.
What’s with the gay sex references all the time?
Government can fail, but not private businesses.
Actually both fail regularly but the gubmint lie so well we tend believe our gubmint baby daddies…
Another screwed up Govt. Agency. No one will be disciplined or fired.
The Fed. Govt. is too big and totally out of control.
I wonder about that one.
Ya know…….what is even more taxing is the actual value of this sludge to begin with. All those contaminates are actual marketable commodities…! While they are toxic to the environment they can be valuable to certain manufacturing processes.
One thing is for sure………..could ISIS have done worse than this…?
One thing is for sure………..could ISIS have done worse than this…?
——
Sure they could – they could cooperate with the Republicans by drawing us into another 10 year war that costs us another 16 Trillion dollars, making certain that we are completely without the means to defend ourselves, fix our crumbling infrastructure, provide an FBI or police force….
The upside is, we would have to sell America to the rich – a libertarian dystopia!
Government corrective/punitive action on this accident should become the standard by which future accidents are treated regardless of the guilty party.
EPA fines itself infinity dollars, pays itself nothing. Now they can fine whoever they want infinity dollars.
We’re from the Government, and we’re here to help! BULL S#!+!
I remember an Obama gov’t robot goon saying he had his BOOT ON THE NECK of BP when it had an accident in its operation doing something positive for our nation.
The EPA is a TAKING agency, spending money, never CONTRIBUTING anything.
Wonder if there will be a BOOT ON tHE NECK of the Gov’t official?
Based Obama’s record with the IRS, SS or any other do-nothing gov’t agency, these Gov’t Gestapo agents will get a FAT raise, while the rest of us starve in this miserable Obma-conomy.
Pull up yo pants boy, yo ass is showin again.
I never get tired of slapping the shit out of you w/ reality. And leaving you sounding like the Dumbass you are.
Oh gross, do you have your pants down to take a dump in public? That’s just nasty!
Yea, that’s almost as bad as SC taxpayers having to pay legal fees for Wilson’s recent screw up.
They did it on purpose.
The EPA is a conspiracy to pollute the Earth…
Every one of their efforts to prevent pollution has resulted in even more pollution… if there were no EPA, corporations would not pollute…. any more.
Yeah, The EPA was created by a Republican administration. Damn cockroaches.
liberals…
damn their eyes for trying to help.
…at least the Republicans stand by their motto: “Fuck you!” – not only do they not apologize, they tell you up front they’re going to steal you blind, to cut down on the trivial lawsuits.
Ah ha! A point we disagree on. I do agree with Margaret Thatcher — The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of someone else’s money to spend.
While I wish we lived in a world that everyone would contribute as much as they could and we could all help each other. When stuff is free, there is never enough of it. You have workers who contribute above and beyond the call of duty, while others would prefer to sit on their duff and do nothing.
Let’s not spend the corporation’s money that leaves the toxic waste – they’ll run out of money to pollute with?
It’s an I gotcha moment. I missed the sarcasm the first time. Many want to abolish EPA among various other agencies. I don’t support that. Yes, they make mistakes. What many fail to see is that swings both ways.
Example, many hate EPA and every other agencies. Drill baby drill with no restriction. Yet, when an accident happens, both sides will scream, depending on the clean up/damage.
Just like the BP spill, corporations need to clean up. Yes, it can be argued they didn’t do enough, but …
Same story, different spin.
Hell ya! ExxonMobil and BP are in on the conspiracy, too! Just follow the MONEY! (Which political party has received the most campaign cash from BP over the last decade? Hmmm….
ExxonMobil and BP are in on the conspiracy, too!
——–
Pure as the driven snow… unimpeachable… the very soul of social responsibility.
At the right hand of Jesus.
The shareholder’s shining path.
Yes…I understand they both have generously padded the pockets of Democrat pols of late…so that makes it all right…right?
Right.
http://www.kunc.org/post/why-was-environmental-protection-agency-messing-mine-above-silverton#stream/0
In other words this mine was a ticking time bomb of toxic water that built up over long periods of time. Colorado is dotted with mines like these, though I doubt most are as bad as this one was. These are all thanks to mining done years and years ago, by of course private industry, and the pollutant buildup is having to be dealt with to this day. Government fucked up, but who else is going to clean these mines of toxic shit?
All private industry has EVER done is cleaned up this earth. Because that COSTS money. They produce WEALTH. You – the gov’t- take our money and line your filthy pockets, you greedy piece of shit. You’re were supposed to be minding pollution, but you were stealing instead.
And all EPA workers will probably all get summary promotions…while those of us working not on the gubmint nickle would be facing fines or jail time for such incompetence.
Jerry McBride found a use for the spill in her hair.
OOPS! Where is Rocky? I want to know her bra size!
Little boy watches with delight, as his mom (aka “clean up your room”) gets the curtains caught in the vacuum cleaner, causing an electrical fire… proving once and for all time that cleaning is a pointless exercise that costs time and money while leaving things worse than they would have been if they’d just been left to rot.
Sounds like that little boy will be future republican.
Or community organizer…
Republicans are always left to clean up the Fucking mess you lazy-ass irresponsible children leave. Reagan did it after Carter. Newt did it for Clinton.
And now somebody’s gotta fix $9 trillion of debt you wasted and about 94 million w/ no job and no hope.
We always fix it, and you and the media just fuck it up again.
Democrat stupidity causes the problem, but the Republicans always get the blame , the bill, and the job of fixing the mess. So, what else is new ???
….grows up to write a political blog about how left wing the Republicans are.
Outta my way! I’m from the gubmint and I am here to help!
Yep, I’m from Gold King Mining Company and you are so right. We would not have left that stuff there if we thought it would be much of a problem. A few people down stream pissing blood and getting cancer ain’t worth all the trouble and cost to clean that shit up. Now the EPA gone and dumped that stuff into the river all at one time. Our slow release method was the best plan, and would have poisoned very few people..
My utility bill has already doubled under Obama. How much is that ignorant, never-worked ass-hole going to cost me this time.
My utility has only increased about 20% in the last 10 years…..
Besides incessant bitching that “Obammer” is responsible from everything from higher electric bills to toenail fungus your point is?????
Sparkle, you really are something, I am just struggling to figure that “something” out. My point is Solar. I refer you to the message above.
If you live in SC, your utility bill is doubling due to Duke Power or SCE&G. They have a strangle hold on solar last I read. Most other companies sublease from these two.
Watch legislation on Solar. SC is a prime state for Solar. NC already has it. SC is prime due to the amount of sunlight. There has been some fuss with Duke monopolizing the market here – other companies want to bring in Solar, but they need a way to burn it off.
Haven’t checked it lately, but I don’t have a flyer in the mailbox offering solar, so I assume Duke is still monopolizing.
What do you mean by Duke “monopolizing the market?” I haven’t been tracking any of that too closely, but I’m pretty sure Santee Cooper (the state utility) owns the biggest solar farm in SC…
This is only part of the conversation and one of the more recent articles (below). What happened, another solar company came to SC several years ago 3+ and offered to put solar on a huge non-profit. The problem was feedback. Solar, from my limited understanding, but I do have info at my disposal, either must burn off with use, be stored in batteries or sent back to a power company. Duke refused to take the solar back even though it is energy they could use. Why? They want the market. I have seen at least 2 bill addressing this, but I have not yet found one that has passed. Maybe it has, but the gist of last bill I saw gave Duke a monopoly on Solar in SC. Outside companies complained. A bill was introduced. What happened? I don’t recall. I do recall that the reason we do not have solar is in large part due to Duke Power. SC is a sunny state and prime for solar energy that would save consumers money. NC already has it, if not the whole state, at least a good portion. I know because I was looking at buying a home there a couple years ago — the power bill was SIGNIFICANTLY less.
Anyways, here is most recent I find and not well researched, but apparently still in the news: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/12/south-carolina-hails-new-solar-milestone/
Here is another, but earlier: http://www.duke-energy.com/news/releases/2015051301.asp
Bills may have been passed since reading about it, but I can’t find it right now if one has been.
Ah ha – the bill signed giving Duke a monopoly was “Signed by Governor Nikki Haley in 2014, the Distributed Energy Resource Program Act is designed to promote a diversified portfolio of distributed energy resources in the state. The law resulted from a year of collaboration among representatives from the environmental community, solar industry, and South Carolina electric utility companies.”
There is no statewide Duke monopoly on any type of power, including solar…
All that’s well and good, but Duke only serves a small portion of SC. The SC state utility (SC Public Service Authority / Santee Cooper, which serves, directly or indirectly, more than half of the state) has jumped on solar and has several experimental facilities up and running. I found several with a 5-minute run on the intergoogle. The solar debate is the same everywhere, at least in regard to utilities- at what rate does the utility pay for excess power sold back to the utility? The standard wholesale rate wouldn’t be fair to other consumers, because it doesn’t take into account the huge investment in transmission grids, distribution stations, etc. This is the issue at hand which must be settled, because current solar technology doesn’t generally enable Harry Homeowner to make it through the night (or even a really overcast day or two). They still need to be “on the grid.”
The solar debate is not a good debate unless you have a lot of sunshine year round, like SC. Here are a couple sources at a glance. Duke is much bigger than you may think. It serves several counties I have lived in, the one one I bought power from that were not Duke, subleased from Duke.
“Duke Energy, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the largest electric power holding company in the United States, with assets also inCanada and Latin America.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Energy
Consider this from P&C “Georgia and the Carolinas together have 250 electric companies, ranging from huge investor-owned utilities with regulated rates to tiny municipal systems.
In between are some power cooperatives such as Santee Cooper, which is well-known in the Greater Charleston area but serves just 6 percent of state residences. Santee Cooper raised its residential rate by 5.3 percent last year, and it will rise by another 6.6 percent this year.”
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130707/PC1610/130709576
There is so much to this conversation, impossible to cover in one conversation and more research on my part, but it has been an interest for years — ever since I looked at that home in NC – HA!
I don’t want to get bogged down in this, but your info is simply off. Santee Cooper serves over 2 million people in SC (your 6% Wikipedia info is onlytheir direct retail customer base; that doesn’t include it’s biggest customers – industry and the electric co-ops). My only point was this – there is no solar monopoly in SC. If there is, someone better tell Santee Cooper, because they own the biggest solar farm here.
I don’t want to get bogged down into it either, but that 6% wasn’t a wiki source, that was published in P&C linked above: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130707/PC1610/130709576
Mike here are the issues I was referring to, looks like they did pass a bill. “Among other things, the new law will allow solar leasing, a way of financing solar panels that could help people more affordably install sun systems on their rooftops. That historically has been an obstacle for homeowners. State laws have in the past discouraged solar companies that provide affordable roof top panels from coming to South Carolina.? Utilities in the past argued that such companies were, in effect, utilities and needed to go through the complicated process of becoming regulated by the S.C. Public Service Commission. One New England company that wanted to help churches, nonprofit groups and schools more easily afford solar panels left the state after SCE&G complained formally to the PSC.”
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article13874228.html
And here are some of the complaints:
Critics say SC solar bill shines first for Duke
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article13845449.html
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article13874228.html#storylink=cpy“
Duke allows net metering. You don’t know what you’re talkin about.
I don’t think it is as simple as this. Allowing an outside company to supply power onto the existing power company grid is not a simple additive equation. It would incur significant capital cost and major reworks of the grid in all likelihood. The power company cannot “store” the power any more easily than the solar companies can. And taking DC solar power, converting to AC and adding it onto already energized 25 KV circuits is pointless. The fact is, solar is a terrible method of producing power and a money loser for anyone who touches it. It would not exist at all without massive government subsidy. Creating batteries good enough to store significant amounts of Solar energy will also involve materials that are far more dangerous to the environment than fossil fuels.
It isn’t as simple as that. I posted a couple other articles down on the thread.
Duke is stopping you from using solar power at your home/business? Interesting.
We have NOTHING to worry about here. DHEC is in charge of small dams. Don’t you feel much better now?
Yep……….
DHEC did a jam up job reacting to that smoldering landfill near Lockhart a few months ago
A story that FITS handily ignored because it only involved old retired and low income folks having to breath fucked up air for months on end……….
Another example of “free enterprise” leaving a shit-hole for the government to deal with – right here in the great State of South Carolina
Just give it 20 years or more when the arsenic and cyanide from the tailings pond from the gold extraction mine near Chester breaks loose..
It will be basically the same thing that is going on in Colorado and New Mexico at this very minute
Wait and see
People who do not deal with DHEC’s environmental side could hardly believe how dismally and profoundly incompetent it is in wide and important areas. And out and out dishonest in some.
EPA is the funding and oversight agency for DHEC. The environmental part anyway. Don’t you feel a lot better now?
So let me understand. Gold King Mine, a private company, filled a tunnel with toxic waste, and left it there. It was dangerous and leaking into local water supplies, and had to be cleaned up. In the process of trying to do that, the EPA’s employees and private contractor broke a leaky damn and the toxic waste spilled into the river. So this is all the EPA’s fault. There is only one answer. We need to leave those mining companies alone. Left to their own devices they would have gotten around to cleaning this up, or it would have just slowly leaked into the water and no one would have known they were drinking poison. What people don’t know won’t hurt them.
Clearly this is the result of the government interfering with the free market.
Stop all surgery for bursting appendices, because once in a blue moon some weakened person succumbs to surgery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTp0AlTuPNA
LOve Train O Jays!!!!!
Jump on board you ignorant, liberal bastard….THE Trump Love Train is rolling thru Fits tonight!!! TOOOOT TOOOOOT!!!!
Back to your hole, cultural inferior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNOL40WxVg
Use to be my girl O’Jays
RNC dedication to Jeb! TOOOT TOOOT!!!!
Bye Bye Hillary!!!
You have a wonderful mind for mindless gibberish.
Back to your hole, mud-person.
Yep, some on this blog use that type of logic……
I am so happy these people have nukes.
It looks like Tang-The best stuff on earth.
Think dirty infant diapers.
Do you mean what’s in the bottle — or her?
Damn that girl is gorgeous!
heh! heh! … and I’ll bet you would love to mash her ‘taters!
They don’t call him Mash Potato for nothin’
I also found it funny that a statewide legislator would accuse FITS of having a baby out of _____? Last I read his Willie was Sic ;)
How about Dan Rather’s Drinking Game? While I typically vote Republican, I think this is absolutely hilarious and spot on: http://mashable.com/2015/08/06/dan-rather-debate-drinking-game/
Holy shit.The devil.
I prefer the term Arc Angel if you will ;)
Very cleverly done, but I thought Dan Rather had died.
Not to my knowledge? He is 83 though :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather
Dear “FITS”
Besides writing about it, you got any ideas about how to take care of it now that the horse is out of the barn????.
Oh, I know…………. stand on the sidelines and arm-chair coach the situation from a libertarian stance.
That will fix the situation!!!!!
For all we know the blockage would have busted on its own and the same situation would have occurred and you would still be arm-chair coaching all the same…..
His job is to inform, not fix. That is up to the people. Just my opinion.
To: “FITS”
The main stream media has been covering this……
I saw it first on CBS “Sunday Morning” and everyday there have been articles/updates on every credible news agency both on TV and the internet
What the hell more do you want?????
Damn…………
At least Obama is putting a huge strangle-hold on the EPA. He’ll fine them over billions of dollars in order to clean up the toxic spill, and will regulate the EPA and make sure their machinery are up to date.
Oh, wait. LOL!!!!!!!! That will never happen! Obama president nao!!!!
It’s not like one has to be a genius to know to build a set or retention pools below any mine that is to be disturbed. Nearly all unused mines fill with water. Even (while not a true mine) Stumphouse Tunnel used to have (and may still – I haven’t been there in 40+ years) water up to your armpits (and deeper, if you were foolish enough to go further in),
Nothing new for out in Colorado, either. See about the Argo Tunnel near Leadville, CO: “Although no longer actively used, the Argo Tunnel continued to drain acid water from the mines, and was recognized as a major continuing source of dissolved metals in Clear Creek. In May 1980, a surge of water flowed from the mine and turned the water in Clear Creek orange for some distance downstream. The temporary large increase in flow was attributed to a roof collapse somewhere within the tunnel damming a large volume of water behind it, then failing suddenly.” (via Wikimedia)
The saddest part is that the BEAUTIFULLY CLEAR Animas River is now the color of diarrhea. I was out there for more than a week last year, and it probably would have been safe to drink untreated (although I no longer do that). It will be several years before even the orange silt clears.
Such a pity that the “professionals” at EPA are such dumbasses.
Wow I gotta get me a drone.