Last week, while America was pre-occupied with the first Republican debate and Caitlyn Jenner’s new reality TV show, an environmental tragedy was unfolding. An orange-yellow sludge, thick with heavy metal pollution, was slowly making its way 
from an abandoned mine into the Animas River then into the San Juan River which runs from Colorado into New Mexico and eventually to Utah. Almost no one seemed to notice. Unfortunately, almost no one seemed to care.
In an article (August 10, 2015) by CNN writer Mariano Castillo entitled: “Pollution flowing faster than facts in EPA spill,” we are made fully aware of a major mistake by the agency that is supposed to be protecting us.
“According to the EPA, the spill occurred when one of its teams was using heavy equipment to enter the Gold King Mine, a suspended mine near Durango. Instead of entering the mine and beginning the process of pumping and treating the contaminated water inside as planned, the team accidentally caused it to flow into the nearby Animas River.”
The spill, caused by an EPA contractor, made its way from the Animas River to the San Juan River and eventually it will make its way into Lake Powell. It is very toxic.
“According to sampling done by the EPA on various points along the Animas River…levels of lead, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium and mercury were extremely high compared with acceptable levels set by the agency…one of the samples of mercury was nearly 10 times higher than the EPA acceptable levels. Samples of beryllium and cadmium were 33 times higher, and one of the arsenic levels was more than 800 times higher.”
By every assessment this sludge, now flowing through ancient American Indian lands and into a major body of water that feeds into a city, will have an effect on fish, wildlife, vegetation and potentially could affect millions of people.
Why the silence?
To say that people along the rivers were upset by EPA’s mistake and initial lack of responsibility is an understatement. Colorado has had to declare a state of emergency in the affected area and will spend a half-million dollars on clean-up efforts.
The Navajo Nation plans on taking legal action against the EPA as the rivers run through parts of its lands. The Navajo’s will sue for any funds it is spending to clean the mess. However much more telling is what occurred in New Mexico (as quoted from the article):
“In a statement from NMED [New Mexico Environmental Department], state engineer Tom Blaine said that the EPA took no action to alert residents of New Mexico to the potential danger, and did not notify the state directly.”
In fact, the governor of the state said the EPA did almost nothing to initially notify the state and perhaps that was the toughest aspect of this sad event.
The toxic metals in the sludge are known to cause cancers and blood disorders; the toxicity was not even conveyed to those potentially affected. It is worth noting that the areas are poor and not heavily populated. I note that, because I wonder what the rush to apology might have looked like had the EPA caused a spill in the Hudson River of New York/New Jersey or to the water supply of Los Angeles.
Mistakes unfortunately happen. It is our response to them that matters. The three-million gallon spill occurred on August 5, 2015. It took the EPA one full week to offer any kind of an apology for the mistakes of one of its contractors.
The following was stated in a press conference on August 12, 2015 by EPA Chief Administrator Gina McCarthy:
“No agency could be more upset about the incident happening, and more dedicated in doing our job to get this right. We couldn’t be more sorry. Our mission is to protect human health and the environment. We will hold ourselves to a higher standard than anyone else.”
The apology is “nice” coming a week after the incident, but if the agency was truly concerned about “protecting human health,” why weren’t they more forthcoming with an immediate statement and daily or even hourly warnings and apologies?
If this weren’t an election year, and if the public officials of Colorado and New Mexico had toned down their disappointment, would there have been any formal apology at all? Yes, this was an environmental issue, but it was also one of ethics. In this case, the ethics were sorely lacking.
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