Colorado officials are disagreeing with the Environmental Protection Agency’s side of the story about a spill the agency caused in August that sent toxic sludge into the waterways of three states.
State officials say they didn’t endorse EPA’s cleanup plan for the abandoned Gold King Mine in Silverton. The federal environmental agency claims Colorado signed off on the plan.
Mike King, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said in a Sept. 2 letter to the EPA that state officials neither approved nor disapproved of the operation. The Associated Press obtained the letter through an open records request and published its findings Thursday.
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“King’s letter is a blow to the EPA’s contention that outside technical experts supported its plan to push a drainage pipe through debris covering the entrance to the Gold King Mine … on Aug. 5,” the AP reported.
The pipe caused water to spew from the mine entrance, which opened a huge hole and a river comprising 3 million gallons of heavy-metal laden wastewater from inside the mine.
The letter also raises problems for the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, which claimed in a recent review that two experts from the state approved the project. Republicans have questioned whether the Interior Department could be trusted to conduct an independent review of the EPA spill.
EPA said the letter in question is still be reviewed by the Office of the Inspector General.
