GOP senators call for criminal probe of EPA mine waste spill

Two Republicans on the Indian Affairs Committee are asking the Justice Department to investigate potential criminal activities by environmental regulators before a mine waste spill in Colorado last year. 

In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday, Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the committee, and John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees may have broken the law by moving forward with clean-up work at the Gold King Mine last August before spilling 3 million gallons of waste into the nearby Animas River.

{mosads}“We ask that you review the circumstances surrounding the Gold King Mine spill to determine specifically whether evidence warrants the prosecution of any EPA manager, employee or contractor for the criminal violation of federal environmental law, criminal negligence, obstruction or any other crime,” the pair wrote. 

“With the conduct of EPA employees and contractors having been stipulated as causing the Gold King Mine spill, DOJ’s involvement is necessary to affirm that the government is willing to hold itself to the same level of accountability as it holds private companies whose negligence results in serious environmental damage.”

Probes from both the Department of Interior and House Republicans have shown the Gold King Mine blow-out and spill was preventable, and that the agency and its on-the-ground officials rushed through the engineering work leading up to the incident. 

In their letter, Barrasso and McCain said they have doubts about the Interior report on the incident and that more needs to be done to determine the “chronology of key events within EPA” leading up to the spill. 

The Indian Affairs Committee held a field hearing on the mine spill last month in Arizona. EPA officials, including Administrator Gina McCarthy, have apologized for the incident and testified before Congress on the matter.

In a statement, the EPA noted that it has also asked its inspector general to investigate the incident. 

Between that and the DOI study, the agency said, “these reports will help inform EPA’s ongoing efforts to work safely and effectively at mine sites as we carry out our mission to protect human health and the environment.”

—Updated at 2:44 p.m.