Yellow river?

**daveb** · 08-10-2015, 05:39 PM

Wow somebody screwed up. I think mother nature will step in it but I'll bet it's going to be a long time with a lot of destruction in between. I hate seeing things like this happening.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /31384515/

gcvt · 08-10-2015, 09:24 PM

If this was the fault of some evil corporation, there would be hell to pay - enormous fines, congressional hearings, etc. But, it's the Government so it'll be swept under the rug and no one will even lose their job.

DesertSMB · 08-10-2015, 09:34 PM

Remember it WAS an evil corporation that left the mess that the government was trying to clean up.

gcvt · 08-10-2015, 10:15 PM

Oh, well then, bravo EPA!

DesertSMB · 08-11-2015, 10:53 PM

Yes, they screwed up. But they were trying to address a real problem. The mining industry, as well as the energy extraction industry have tended to take their private profits and then left their messes to be cleaned up on the public (Government) dime. The former is human error, and there should be investigations as to what went wrong, but the latter is just greed.

gcvt · 08-11-2015, 11:34 PM

The mining industry, coal industry, etc. powers America, whether you like it or not. The EPA has just created a unmitigated disaster.

Where is the outrage from the enviro-nazis?? Where’s Greenpeace or The Center For Bio Diversity people on this? Haven’t heard a peep!

If there was ever a better argument that the EPA should be disbanded, this is it.

How will the EPA pay for this? By taxing you.

The scope of this disaster is so large, most can’t even understand it.

How much is the EPA going to fine themselves for this?

JoeH · 08-12-2015, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gcvt

The mining industry, coal industry, etc. powers America, whether you like it or not. The EPA has just created a unmitigated disaster.

Where is the outrage from the enviro-nazis?? Where’s Greenpeace or The Center For Bio Diversity people on this? Haven’t heard a peep!

If there was ever a better argument that the EPA should be disbanded, this is it.

How will the EPA pay for this? By taxing you.

The scope of this disaster is so large, most can’t even understand it.

How much is the EPA going to fine themselves for this?

That's a bit harsh. The "scope of the problem" is enormous. There are 10s of thousands of abandoned mines, waste water, and tailings in Colorado. The mining companies, most of them foreign owned, were allowed to pretty much do what they wanted for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet, we leave it to the EPA to clean up the mess and play the blame game when they blow it while trying to mitigate another environmental disaster.

Viva · 08-12-2015, 09:12 AM

I'm on the side of "yeah, this totally sucks, and the EPA messed up big time; but they didn't create the problem, and had no motivation (profit) to cause it."

As far as I can tell (just by some reading), these mines are all over the place in Colorado and were basically abandoned when they were no longer profitable. No one bothered to "take out the garbage" before they left (I guess they did take their profits with them though).

Apparently they could have had Superfund status (big clean up $$ awarded), but didn't want it because they felt the image would hurt tourism (which is where they get their money now). I can see that point of view, although I wish they had taken Superfund status. I'd rather "tour" where something is being cleaned up than where I know there is hidden waste. Colorado is amazing and beautiful.

Anyway, so now the EPA is in there to clean up and there is more polluted water than they knew about and they likely also messed up and shifted some dirt they maybe shouldn't have and now the pollution (which was already there) has run rampant. I would DEFINITELY like to know how that happened, how it could be prevented in future (there are many more mines with pollution in them), and.... if someone made a big mistake... yeah, get rid of them.

I'm not sure fining them would help because if they are taxpayer supported, that's like fining ourselves. On the other hand, they are not making a profit on their operations (when times are good) either.

Seems too "easy" to me to just blame the EPA --- even if they did mess up. I think it would be partial blame at best.

Anyway, main thing is to now mitigate as much as possible and learn from it. Maybe now Superfund will be accepted more often if offered?

JoeH · 08-12-2015, 09:45 AM

Everything was pretty much dead in the area's waterways anyway. Most of the area was devoid of fish. As far as wondering whey the enviros are not all up in arms do you fight for an area that is already dead?

On the other hand, the EPA dropped the ball on not notifying people of the potential public health risk. Failing to report the spill for 24 hours is inexcusable.

**daveb** · 08-12-2015, 02:14 PM

What bothers me is that the experts are claiming the EPA was in over their heads and didn't have knowledge as how to handle a hazmat site which in turn supposedly caused the situation. They should be in there as a watchdog agency only, not as a cleanup contractor. However I'm just reading reports and really there needs to be an investigation as to what actually happened. I don't even know if this was something that had been contaminated in recent years or something as far back as the early 1900's. I understand that some industries don't follow toxic operation guidelines by the book but I'll keep the tin foil hat off until some things have been answered. I just wonder if this will be set on the back shelf to collect dust because it's the EPA has a spotlight on them

I do notice that the media is very quiet on this and if it had been a private company I'd bet it would have been a major news story.

Not saying it's what happened here, but there are places where a void in the ground fills up with water over time and natural contaminants leach into the water as it sits for years. Don't blame what happened in the past rather learn from it, don't exaggerate what isn't factual and take precautions so it doesn't happen again. The US is pretty clean compared to a lot of other nations.
I didn't know the river was dead prior to this but I hate seeing it dumped into the Colorado.