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EPA mine cleanup goes horribly wrong, spilling 1M gallons of contaminated water

An environmental cleanup of a mine in Colorado went horribly wrong, leading to the spill of one million gallons of contaminated water into a creek that drains into the San Juan River.

By Mark Drajem, Bloomberg | Updated on August 10, 2015
During an environmental cleanup of an abandoned mine in the mountains of Colorado, the EPA spilled one million gallons of contaminated acidic water into a creek that drains into the San Juan River. (Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock.com)

(Bloomberg) — An environmental cleanup of an abandoned mine in the mountains of Colorado went horribly wrong, leading to the spill of one million gallons of contaminated water into a creek that eventually drains into the San Juan River.

The incident happened when workers for the Environmental Protection Agency were trying to clean the long-abandoned Gold King Mine, but allowed it to breach a berm, or small strip of raised land, and the toxic water flowed into the Animas River. It turned the clear mountain stream a mustard orange color, according to photos posted online. The local sheriff’s office on Aug. 6 closed the river to swimming, kayaking and rafting, and it remained closed Saturday.

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