Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


Thirteen months after an Environmental Protection Agency mistake sent millions of gallons of bright orange wastewater into a Colorado river, the agency has declared the Gold King Mine and 47 other locations in the region Superfund sites, 


Sites in California, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Texas and West Virginia also were added to the Superfund list Wednesday, 

Officials told CPR that the cleanup will cost millions of dollars and take years or even decades.





The 2015 spill into the Animas River, which was laced with mercury and arsenic, 

 for response and water-quality monitoring, CPR's Grace Hood reported in August. That spill is ongoing, she noted — at the time sending 500 gallons of water a minute into the river.


The state of New Mexico, where the water wound up, "has enough unresolved questions that it filed suit against both the EPA and Colorado." The Navajo Nation also has sued, the AP reports, and the state of Utah is likely to file as well.

The problem isn't limited to these newly-declared Superfund sites, Hood reported:

Environmental News

Water

Christopher Dean Hopkins

Author

Thirteen months after an Environmental Protection Agency mistake sent millions of gallons of bright orange wastewater into a Colorado river, the agency has announced a cleanup for the Gold King Mine.

More than a year after spill, Colorado's Gold King Mine named Superfund site

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox