XPost: alt.politics.obama, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: co.politics

A spill that sent toxic water seeping from an abandoned Colorado
gold mine and turned a river orange is three times as large as
first thought, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA said Sunday that 3 million gallons of wastewater had
spilled from the mine, and the sludge was still flowing. The EPA
said that health risks to humans and aquatic life were not yet
clear.

On Wednesday, an EPA-supervised cleanup crew accidentally
breached a debris dam that had formed inside the Gold King Mine,
shuttered since 1923, sending a yellow-orange sludge leaking
into the Animas River.

Water collected downstream showed higher than normal levels of
arsenic, lead and other metals. In Durango, Colorado, the mayor
assured people the water was safe to drink because the city shut
off its intake valve from the Animas.

Still, "The river for us is an integral part of our community,"
state Sen. Ellen Roberts, who represents Durango, told MSNBC on
Monday. "It's where people get married. People do their own
private ceremonies along there. It's our daily life."

The discolored water reached New Mexico and by late Sunday was
headed for Utah. Authorities there were planning to shut two
wells that serve the town of Montezuma Creek. A tank of
residential water in Halchita, Utah, was filled with water
shipped from Arizona.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/colorado-mine-spill-toxic- wastewater-leak-far-exceeds-first-estimates-n407091

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