By Sara Jerome
@sarmje

In an unusual change of roles, the top water pollution regulator in the U.S. has claimed responsibility for sending a flood of toxic waste into the Colorado Animas River last week.

“Since August 5, the Animas has been grievously polluted with toxic water spilled from one of the many abandoned mines that pockmark the region — a spill for which the EPA has claimed responsibility, saying it accidentally breached a store of chemical-laced water,” The New York Times reported.

The contamination has spread over 100 miles downriver, hitting New Mexico. The agency “now estimates 3 million gallons of mine waste has leaked, three times the amount previously disclosed,” The Washington Post reported.

“Testing by the EPA — an agency typically in the position of responding to toxic disasters, not causing them — found that the wastewater spill caused levels of arsenic, lead and other metals to spike in the Animas River,” The New York Times reported.

The discharge was still flowing “at the rate of 500 gallons per minute four days after the spill began at the Gold King Mine,” Reuters reported.

The New York Times described the incident and how it is affecting drinking water systems:

Soon after the spill was detected, city officials stopped pumping water from the Animas into the reservoir that provides drinking water for Durango’s 17,000 residents — taking action swiftly enough that the contamination did not reach the drinking supply. The reservoir still receives water from the Florida River, a tributary of the Animas, but the city has asked local residents to conserve so that the reservoir does not get too low.

Most people living outside the city use wells, and officials say about 1,000 residential water wells could be contaminated. The river is closed indefinitely, and the county sheriff has hastily recast his campaign signs into posters warning river visitors to stay out of the water. The yellow plume has traveled down to New Mexico — where officials in several municipalities have stopped pumping river water into drinking water systems, fearing contamination — and to the Navajo Nation.

Some state officials criticized how the feds handled the crisis, according to Slate: “Authorities in New Mexico, downstream from the spill, complained that the EPA failed to alert them in a timely manner about the release of the toxic plume, which...has turned miles of the Animas River a mustard color.”

Local officials want more information about what the waste contains, Slate reported. “And the Navajo Nation, worried about the loss of irrigation for members' crops from polluted waters, is weighing a lawsuit against the EPA,” the site said.

Deborah McKean, chief of the EPA Region 8 Toxicology and Human Health and Risk Assessment, spoke with reporters about the incident.

"Yes, those numbers are high and they seem scary. But it's not just a matter of toxicity of the chemicals, it's a matter of exposure,” she said, per USA Today. “She said the period of time those concentrations remain in one area is short.”

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Source Water Contamination Solutions Center.

http://www.wateronline.com/doc/epa-claims-responsibility-contaminating-river-0001