EPA triples Colo river spill estimate

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes it spilled 3 million gallons of mine waste containing heavy metals into a Colorado river, it said.

The latest estimate of the spill came out Sunday, and it’s triple the EPA’s initial estimate regarding its release of mine waste from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River at Silverton, Colo., The Durango Herald reported.

{mosads}The agency has been under harsh criticism from political and environmental leaders in the days following the spill, which turned the river bright orange and caused officials downstream to restrict water intake, recreation, fishing and other activities.

The waste, which EPA crews accidentally released when removing backfill from the abandoned mine, is believed to contain metals like cadmium, copper, zinc and manganese.

The spill has caused declarations of a state of emergency, and the EPA is considering declaring some areas Superfund sites.

“This is critical information for us,” Shaun McGrath, the EPA’s regional administrator, told residents Sunday about the new spill estimate, the Herald said. “Now we have a much more reliable estimate of the volume that will help us with our work on modeling how this behaved and will continue to behave over the coming weeks and months.”

The new estimate was based mostly on river flow readings from the United States Geological Survey, according to the Herald.

Local and state officials are angry that the EPA has still not released analysis of the tests it has conducted on the river. It has only released basic information about the metals it has found, and promised more information in coming days.