What event happened on August 5 2015 in Silverton Colorado and how did it negatively impact the waters of the Animas River and the Navajo people living near the river?

The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill was an environmental disaster that began at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel, along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC (a Missouri company under EPA contract to mitigate pollutants from the closed mine …

What event happened on August 5 2015 in Silverton Colorado and how did it negatively impact the waters of the Animas River and the Navajo people living near the river?

The 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill was an environmental disaster that began at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado, when Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) personnel, along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC (a Missouri company under EPA contract to mitigate pollutants from the closed mine …

Is the Colorado River contaminated?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it now estimates that a leak that turned a Colorado river yellow has caused three times as much pollution as initially thought. The Animas River has been closed since five EPA workers accidentally sent contaminated water pouring downstream.

What is the status of the Gold King Mine site today?

The bright orange plume from the original spill is gone, but legal fights and restoration projects continue. And heavy metals from the three million gallons of mining wastewater remain in waterways used by communities, farmers and ranchers.

Who cleaned up the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill?

In response to the August 5, 2015, Gold King Mine Spill from the Bonita Peak Mining District that resulted in the release of three-million gallons of mine-impacted waters, the Utah Water Science Center, in partnership with the Utah Division of Water Quality, National Park Service, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, cored …

Who paid for the cleanup of the Gold King Mine?

The EPA, the departments of the Interior and Agriculture will, for their part, make a payment of $45 million toward the cleanup under the deal. Colorado-based Sunnyside, Toronto-based Kinross and the federal entities do not admit to any liability in the proposed consent decree which is subject to court approval.

Why is the Colorado River Brown?

As the Colorado River winds through the Colorado Plateau’s layer cake of soft sedimentary strata, it picks up a tremendous amount of sediment, which once left the river’s warm waters so muddy that Spanish explorers christened it El Rio Colorado, “the reddish river.” Today, that sediment is deposited in the reservoir …

Is the Colorado River Dirty?

In April 2004, however, the environmental organization American Rivers and its partners designated the Colorado River as the nation’s “most endangered river,” citing mounting problems with radioactive, human and toxic waste that are contaminating groundwater levels to unsafe conditions.