EPA: Wastewater Spill In Animas River Contains Heavy Metals

SILVERTON, Colo. (CBS4) - More water is being released into the Animas River in an attempt to flush out the one million gallons of wastewater from a San Juan County mine spilling into the water that contains heavy metals including lead and arsenic. The EPA also released a statement about what happened.

The source of the wastewater is from the Gold King Mine near Silverton. It happened on Wednesday while U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials were doing work on the mine to excavate the loose material that had collapsed into the cave entry. During excavation the loose material gave way and opened the mine tunnel which gave the wastewater a path out. There were several workers at the site and all were unharmed.

"It's hard being on the other side of this in terms of being the one who caused this incident. We typically respond to emergencies and don't cause them," said EPA spokesman David Ostrander.

All the waste is pouring into the river and flowing downriver. The EPA said the waste also contains cadmium, aluminum, copper and calcium. The EPA didn't discuss health risks but arsenic at high levels can cause blindness, paralysis and cancer. Muscle and vision problems can be caused by lead poisoning for adults and harm in development in fetuses, and lead to kidney disease, developmental problems and sometimes death in children, according to the EPA.

The Bureau of Reclamation has increased its water releases from Navajo Dam, from 650 to 1,300 cubic feet per second in response to the mine spill. The increased releases may help dilute mine contaminates in the river. The releases will remain at that increased level throughout the weekend and will be reevaluated on Monday.

Durango has shut down water intakes from the river until the contaminated water has passed, but the spill is not affecting drinking water. The EPA has said people should stay out of the river. Water utilities have closed intake valves to protect their systems.

Officials in New Mexico are blasting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not informing them soon enough about a plume of mustard-colored muck floating downstream from a Colorado mine.

New Mexico's environment secretary, Ryan Flynn, said Friday that the EPA downplayed the danger the contamination posed to wildlife, saying that potential harm can't be known until the contents of the wastewater and their concentrations are known.

"Our initial reaction was not appropriate in that we did not understand the full extent of what we were looking at," Shaun McGrath with the EPA said.

The EPA released this statement, in part, just before 2 p.m. Friday: Today the water in Cement Creek and the Animas River in Silverton is clearing. The adit is still discharging lower flows into Cement Creek. Today, EPA is rebuilding settling ponds to treat these flows – the upper pond will be completed by early afternoon, and the lower pond by COB or early tomorrow. EPA will treat the mine water diverted to the ponds with caustic soda and flocculent once the ponds are built.

We expect conditions will continue to improve in the coming hours and days. As of 10 a.m. today the leading edge of the plume was at 8 miles, as the crow flies (not river miles), from the New Mexico state line. We expect an update on that location later this afternoon. We will continue to coordinate with local, state, tribal and federal officials.

EPA 's ASPECT (Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology) arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, last evening to fuel up, and completed a preliminary overflights to determine how far downstream the release has gotten. The flight crew flew this morning from the New Mexico border to the mine to take photographs. The flight crew will fly the river again this afternoon.