Environmental Nightmare, Courtesy of the EPA

Above, a view of the Animas River from the Durango train. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Thanks to the dumb-asses with the Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado's Animas River is an ecological nightmare and it may take a long time for it to be back to normal.

According to Weather.com:

An accidental wastewater spill from an abandoned mine in Colorado that turned the Animas River orange last week is actually three times worse than previously thought, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials announced. 

The agency on Thursday estimated that a million gallons of highly acidic mine wastewater were released from an abandoned mine that contaminated the Animas River in La Plata County, Colorado. But after using a stream gauge from the U.S. Geological Survey, the EPA now says that real figure is actually 3 million gallons of wastewater.  

In an ironic twist, a mining safety team working for the EPA that was trying to access, treat and pump out the wastewater for an ongoing cleanup project triggered the release using heavy equipment, the Durango Herald reports.  

The wastewater, which spilled into Cement Creek before flowing into the Animas River, contains high concentrations of metals like manganese, aluminum, cadmium, zinc and copper.

I have been to Durango, Colorado several times to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. I have also river-rafted down the Animas River twice.

The Animas River feeds into the Colorado River which, I may add, is a major source of drinking water. With the current drought in the Southwestern U.S. and this ecological disaster, where are people going to find safe drinking water?

Some heads at the EPA should roll over this.

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