A bill introduced Tuesday could help communities affected by the Gold King Mine spill by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to compensate them for damages.
The legislation, introduced by Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., would require the EPA to work with and compensate the communities who have been hurt by the toxic spill.
The proposal would also make the EPA work with states and Native American tribes to pay for long-term water quality monitoring from the mine, and identify risks at other abandoned mines for possible future spills.
Udall said in a statement that he wants to hold EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to her commitment to making sure the claims process goes smoothly, while also emphasizing water quality and compensation funding.
“This bill will hold the EPA to that commitment by ensuring New Mexicans get the compensation they’re owed without unnecessary delay,” he said. “Our bill also takes action to prevent a mistake like this from happening again — a first step toward finally reforming our outdated mining laws.”
The Aug. 5 spill at the closed gold mine in Colorado sent millions of gallons of toxic water into the Aminas and San Juan rivers. The spill was caused by a EPA contractor rupturing a wall that was holding back the wastewater.
The spill caused the Animas and San Juan to turn yellow with the toxic sludge as it flowed through Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
Clean up from the spill could cost as much as $27.7 billion, according to some studies.
“The community deserves a commitment to a solution for this long standing pollution,” Bennet said.
The bill introduced Tuesday outlines acceptable damages and would set up an Office of Gold King Mine Spill Claims within the EPA. That office would be tasked with quickly going through the compensation process. Property, business and financial losses could all be compensated.
The EPA would also be required to identify the most dangerous abandoned mines across the western United States where similar incidents could occur.
The New Mexico senators are considering a second bill to update the nation’s mining laws, which date back to 1872, they said. The new law would ensure mining companies pay a royalty for the materials they take from public lands, similar to the royalties paid by oil, gas and coal companies. The royalties would help pay for clean up at abandoned mines.
“Passing long overdue reforms to our federal mining laws is also critical if we want to prevent future disasters like the Gold King spill and protect the health of our most precious resource: water,” Heinrich said.
The bill’s introduction came a day before the EPA announced it would set up a portable, temporary treatment system to clean the water discharged from the mine.
The EPA constructed temporary settling ponds in August after the spill, and the new portable treatment system would replace those ponds. It is expected the new system will be used started in the winter.
“This system will treat the approximately 550 gallons per minute of water that continue to flow from the mine, including the discharges related to ongoing work in the mine to stabilize conditions,” the EPA wrote in a statement released Wednesday. “The system is designed to handle up to 1,200 gallons per minute. The objective of the treatment system is to neutralize the mine discharge and remove solids and metals.”
