EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill

[Doc7505]

EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill​

Update: EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill - Washington Legal Foundation

Almost five years to the day after its own employees’ and contractors’ negligence caused 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste to spill out of an abandoned mine and into the Animas River, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a $360 million settlement of a suit Utah filed against the...

www.wlf.org

6 Aug 2020

Almost five years to the day after its own employees’ and contractors’ negligence caused 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste to spill out of an abandoned mine and into the Animas River, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a $360 million settlement of a suit Utah filed against the agency. A February 2016 WLF Legal Pulse post discussed the accident and contrasted it to a waste spill in West Virginia of significantly less magnitude that led EPA to pursue criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.
As discussed in our post, “evidence abounds that the Gold King Mine spill resulted from the negligence of EPA employees and contractors and the agency’s disregard of serious pollution risks” The post continues:

Prior to commencing work on August 5, the on-site EPA team failed to conduct a routine water pressure reading, the result of which would (or should) have forestalled further action. No such reading was taken, and contractors proceeded to dig into the mine’s floor with a backhoe, blowing out a plug and triggering the deluge of yellow sludge into Cement Creek, which feeds the Animas and San Juan Rivers. ​

EPA’s on-site coordinator, Hays Griswold, remarked at the time of the spill that “nobody expected [the water in the mine] to be that high.” Once the spill occurred, the agency delayed informing the governments of downstream states for nearly a full day. New Mexico’s environmental secretary remarked that EPA “[was] really downplaying the issue.”​

~Snip~
Local media reported that “Utah will reap million of dollars’ worth of environmental cleanup and monitoring benefits in a ‘landmark’ agreement”— as if the settlement provided a windfall benefit to the state and its residents.

Commentary:
Our tax dollars at work. The EPA led under auspices of Gina McCarthy was just one of the bad actors that made the EPA into a criminal agency.
On a personal basis, my career of over two decades dealt mainly with Regulatory Compliance dealing with EPA regulations, FDA, FCC, and OSHA.
The EPA was always the most difficult to deal with and half the time other than a few personal contacts within the agency no one really knew what they were doing.

 

[initforme]

All the epa does is make it easier for big industry to willfully pollute and harm citizens health.

 

[jackflash]

EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill​

Update: EPA Settles Suit by Utah over Massive Gold King Mine Waste Spill - Washington Legal Foundation

Almost five years to the day after its own employees’ and contractors’ negligence caused 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste to spill out of an abandoned mine and into the Animas River, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a $360 million settlement of a suit Utah filed against the...

www.wlf.org

6 Aug 2020

Almost five years to the day after its own employees’ and contractors’ negligence caused 3,000,000 gallons of toxic waste to spill out of an abandoned mine and into the Animas River, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to a $360 million settlement of a suit Utah filed against the agency. A February 2016 WLF Legal Pulse post discussed the accident and contrasted it to a waste spill in West Virginia of significantly less magnitude that led EPA to pursue criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.
As discussed in our post, “evidence abounds that the Gold King Mine spill resulted from the negligence of EPA employees and contractors and the agency’s disregard of serious pollution risks” The post continues:

Prior to commencing work on August 5, the on-site EPA team failed to conduct a routine water pressure reading, the result of which would (or should) have forestalled further action. No such reading was taken, and contractors proceeded to dig into the mine’s floor with a backhoe, blowing out a plug and triggering the deluge of yellow sludge into Cement Creek, which feeds the Animas and San Juan Rivers. ​

EPA’s on-site coordinator, Hays Griswold, remarked at the time of the spill that “nobody expected [the water in the mine] to be that high.” Once the spill occurred, the agency delayed informing the governments of downstream states for nearly a full day. New Mexico’s environmental secretary remarked that EPA “[was] really downplaying the issue.”​

~Snip~
Local media reported that “Utah will reap million of dollars’ worth of environmental cleanup and monitoring benefits in a ‘landmark’ agreement”— as if the settlement provided a windfall benefit to the state and its residents.

Commentary:
Our tax dollars at work. The EPA led under auspices of Gina McCarthy was just one of the bad actors that made the EPA into a criminal agency.
On a personal basis, my career of over two decades dealt mainly with Regulatory Compliance dealing with EPA regulations, FDA, FCC, and OSHA.
The EPA was always the most difficult to deal with and half the time other than a few personal contacts within the agency no one really knew what they were doing.

It's long past time to retire out the EPA & let the 50 individual states each do their own thing as far as environmental concerns go. The Coasties would still be needed for monitoring coastal salt waters for sure. Something like a federal "Interstate Waterways Agency" would be needed to monitor fresh water rivers but limited to only a "advisory capacity" as the fed agencies/bureaucracies obviously can no longer be trusted due to their track history of corruption.

 

[elektra]

This was all democrat. Democrats looking for a way to take the essential life giving co2 out the air.

Climate Change does not kill, but democrat climate change policies does kill