In August 2015, an Environmental Protection Agency contractor caused 3 million gallons of toxic mine waste to enter the Animas River while conducting an arguably unnecessary and undeniably risky site investigation of a mine that had been closed for nearly a century. This was the worst water-based pollution incident since the BP oil spill, and the EPA compounded its error by failing to communicate the problem in a timely fashion to the communities downstream.

Residents in that part of southwestern Colorado were especially upset because they had opposed EPA’s attempts to turn their region into a Superfund pollution disaster area. EPA seemed determined to press forward in messing with the mine, and the result is history.